Colorado National Monument is a National Park Service unit near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado. Sheer-walled canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite–gneiss–schist rock formations. This is an area of desert land high on the Colorado Plateau, with pinyon and juniper forests on the plateau.
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My husband and I are both from the Southwest and well-acquainted with lovely desert scenery, but we were thoroughly enchanted by the Colorado National Monument when we visited it with a friend of ours recently. We took the 23-mile Rimrock Drive, from the southeastern entrance traveling northwest to Fruita. The scenery was absolutely stunning, with the dark red earth contrasting with the deep green of pinon pines. A recent sprinkling of snow added to the color palette. We stopped several times at scenic overlooks and exchanged greetings with other visitors to the park. Toward the northwestern entrance, we stopped at the Visitor Center and chatted with the staff. Special thanks to the park rangers on duty that day, for being so friendly and helpful in answering all our questions! Just as we were getting ready to leave, a couple came in from the trail side of the center and said they’d seen a bighorn sheep just a few hundred yards away! We scooted down the trail until we saw a photographer with his camera trained on the animal, who was feeding in some brush. We slowly crept closer until we were within range of our not-so-professional cameras; the sheep stopped eating, lifted his head, and paused there, as if posing for his picture for us. It was magical! We shared the photo with the rangers when we returned, and they were delighted we’d had that opportunity.
It was a marvelous experience from start to finish, and we are so happy to have added Colorado National Monument to the national parks and monuments we’ve visited! It’s definitely worth a trip for anyone visiting Grand Junction. If you’re in search of beautiful high desert mountain scenery, you won’t be...
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When I was planning a roadtrip of Colorado's national parks and other similar attractions, I came across this. Two parts of me suggested we skip it, thinking maybe it might be too similar to or even less impressive than a place like Canyonlands, which we'd visited two years prior, or that because we'd be stopping by in mid-July, it wouldn't be enjoyable at all, since it's a high desert. I'm glad I ignored those two voices. While we only spent about 3 1/2 hours here, it was well worth the extra 90 minutes of driving on our trip.
We entered at the West/Fruita entrance, and stopped at all but maybe one or two of the overlooks along Rim Rock Drive. Several of the overlooks offer excellent views of unique geological formations; others allow you to just soak in the beauty of the sandstone and the river valley off to the north and east. We also spent about a half hour at the visitor center, as our kids completed the junior ranger program booklets.
If time were less of a factor, I would've liked to take Black Ridge Road out of the park toward Rattlesnake Canyon, as that seems to be a great, short trail to see a couple of amazing arches. And if weather were less of a factor (the temperatures were in the upper 90s the entire afternoon we were there), we almost certainly would've hiked at least a couple of the shorter trails (Coke Ovens, Otto's, Canyon Rim, Window Rock). But it felt like over 100 degrees outside, and just getting in and out of the car and walking a short distance to each overlook was exhausting enough as it was. Maybe another time.
Ultimately, this park deserves to be reclassified as a National Park. My hometown has a "national park" that's way less...
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This place is a treasure. Camping? Yes. Trails? Yep. Climbing?! Yeah, there's that, too (if you know where to look). And plenty of wonderful views.
There are a number of entrances into the park, with the main ones being part of a well paved, curvy road. Honestly, just driving through is wonderful. Getting out to explore is where it's at, though.
There are plenty of designated places to pull off and park, so you'll be able to look around if you want to. The visitors center has bathrooms, and I know there's a vault toilet at the Liberty Cap trailhead parking area. There might be some others, but I don't recall at the moment.
I'm not going to tell you that visiting the monument is life changing, but it's definitely worth doing. In particular, the parking area for Independence Monument is a great place to take a break and just spend some quiet time. All the different parking areas have something to offer, though, and are worth a look if you have the time. Plus, keep a lookout and you might see some of our mountain sheep!
(Personally, I like going late at night for stars and views of the city. It's not the darkest sky, but it has it's charms. Great place for quiet contemplating, for sure )
If you live in the area, you already know this. If you're visiting, come...
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