The plan for today was to wake early around 6:30 am and drive 1.5 hours to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, do the park for 4 hours and then drive back to Grand Junction and then do Colorado National Monument (CNM) in the late afternoon and early evening. Sometimes, well laid plans hit a snag. Our snag was work(job) items that had to be done and just being plain tired. We spent the first half of the day resting and getting work done. I took the kids back over to the game room in the afternoon for some fun there.
In front of Balanced Rock
We finally left the campground around 4:30 for the Colorado National Monument when it started to cool down. We took the road to the north side of the monument near Fruita, Colorado and entered the park. It was a 28 mile “through” road called Rim Rock Drive (much like the road at the Badlands NP) with wonderful scenery. We
At the end of Otto’s trail
stopped at the Visitor Center after entering the park and watched the short movie and toured the small area of exhibits. I had read that CNM had applied for National Park status and just the day before our visit had been denied. Talking with the ranger about it, she said it was an ongoing process and they were still hopeful about it in the future. I always like to talk with the rangers as they have great information about hiking trails and areas for wildlife sightings. CNM was wonderful, we used the remaining hours of daylight to explore the different overlooks. We stopped at Otto’s Trail (named after the monuments founder John Otto for a short hike out to a beautiful high point that has excellent views of 2 large canyons and numerous different rock formations ( Pipe Organ, Independence Monument, Window Rock, Kissing Couple) to name a few were all visible from that one location. We continued down Rim Rock Road and stopped at most all of the overlooks for a least a brief stop or hike to see the beautiful formations. Lindsay and I both got a chuckle as she shivered from the car’s AC being too cold just 20 seconds before passing “Cold Shiver Point”. How appropriate! As we neared the East entrance we passed the Serpents Trail which was originally part of the road into the park with over 50 switchbacks. CNM was great and I hope they get that National Park status- it is deserved. Leaving the monument we stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Aztecas and had a wonderful late, late dinner meal of chimichangas, flautas, tostadas, tacos, enchiladas and topped it off with a desert of strawberry churros! On to Utah tomorrow!
Independence Monument (R), Pipe Organ (L), Window Rock (in background)