Park County Colorado

[Ptychodus04]

I'm going to be spending some time in Eastern Park County Colorado (Elevenmile Canyon) soon. Anybody know of any fossil bearing formations there? Look like mostly igneous rocks from what I can see. although, there appears to be a fair bit of gold to be found.

[jkfoam]

Florissant, Colorado is very near Elevenmile Canyon. You should stop over and visit the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument just a few miles south of Florissant. Its worth the time. While there is no collecting at the National Monument there is a "collect for fee" area on private land between the town of Florrisant and the National Monument. They have boxes of the shale for sale and you can take the box home or split it there at their facilities. The have picnic tables and all the tools for you to use. You will come away with some very nice leaf fossils and maybe, if you look sharp, some insects. Below is a picture of the leaf fossils my granddaughters and my wife and I collected a few years ago.

[Ptychodus04]

Very cool. Thanks for the advise. We plan to stop at the National Monument but I'll definitely check out the fee collecting site.