The Colorado National Monument is best toured by car, driving along a 20+ mile road around the ridge in and out of the canyon channels. Along the way, there are lots of stops to hop out, look, take pictures, hike, etc. – enough to spend a large chunk of the day there. As a little piece of history, the road we were on, and for the most part, the entire park was a result of FDR’s new deal, putting people to work during the Great Depression. There’s really not much story to go along with the day since there was no specific thing we were attempting to accomplish, so just look at the pictures and be happy.
After the Colorado National Monument we headed out to Arches National Park. I was stupid and didn’t fill up on gas in Grand Junction and then realized two things — 1. That we were driving through the middle of nowhere (a very bad place to run out of gas) with 60+ miles between stations and 2. The Frog’s miles to empty gauge was horribly misleading. Result: we turned back to Grand Junction to get gas and make sure we could actually make it to Moab. We got to Moab, UT pretty late on Day 4, and found that the Lazy Lizard, the hostel where Janet had stayed previous, was all booked. Actually, most everywhere seemed pretty well booked. We ended up finding a place just beyond the main drag, and apparently pretty close to the Lizard, where we stayed for the night.
The map photo came from here: http://www.nps.gov/colm/planyourvisit/upload/COLM_Map.pdf I’m pretty sure it’s promotional material and I’m OK to use it without specific permission. And, so long as links are being thrown out there, here’s the Colorado National Monument’s official National Park Service site: http://www.nps.gov/colm/index.htm.
Aspens, glowing yellow against the generally red rock.
This thing (how descriptive) was near Window Rock at the end of the first hike.
Tower Rock with a Norconk
Window Rock... with guests.
Looking 'into' one of the canyon scallops.
Coke ovens
The National Park Service map of the Colorado National Monument, in case my description of the place didn't do it justice.
Hi Matthew!
I’m not sure how I found your blog, but I’m glad I did! really nice pics and useful info.
I was looking at the “west trip” pages, as I am planing a trip to that region. can you tell me what time of year was it?
Thanks!
Wow – didn’t think I’d have posted the entire trip without ever mentioning the dates, but I can’t find any references. From the pictures I have here (still have the EXIF data) the trip must have been 10/05/12 through 10/20/12.
I would not really recommend trying to do mountain climbing and the other southern parks in the same trip. It was too late in the season for climbing mountains. Days were too short and the weather was too cold, requiring too much clothes being hiked up the mountain for layering.
The southern parts – Grand Canyon, Arches, Zion, Bryce – were great at this time of year. They’re more desert kind of landscapes, so the lower temps were good. Days were shorter, but that wasn’t too big a deal.