Colorado National Monument

This morning, we headed out to the Colorado National Monument, about 20 minutes from our campground.  We had not heard of this site managed by the National Park Service until we began researching things to do in the Grand Junction area. 

The roads through the monument area wind around  the canyon rim and up through mountains that are being worn over time by water, wind, and ice.  The area is very colorful, with golds, reds, and other rock colors, as well as various shades of green with the trees and shrubs.

Henry was hoping to see a desert bighorn sheep.  They were reintroduced into the park in the 70's and are thriving.  Sadly, we didn't get to see one today.  We did see a few lizards, thanks to Jeff pointing them out.

We took a hike uo to a place called Devil's Kitchen.  The path ends inside a "room" surrounded by rocks, hence the name Devil's Kitchen.  In the corner of it is a balancing rock - one sitting right on top of another.  There are a few of the

se visible in the park.

The most critical thing you need when venturing out at the Colorado Monument is bug spray.  They have these little biting gnats that are really annoying.  And mosquitoes.  First we used the 40% Deet on all of us, and then Jeff and I had to resort to the 100% Deety spray to keep the little buggers away.  We noticed the flag man for a road construction team wearing what looked like a beekeeper's hat on to keep the bugs away from his face.

In the summer, you have to go there early in the morning or later in the evening to avoid the heat.  It gets to 100 degrees pretty quickly here in the sun, and even with strong sunscreen on, I've been getting some sunburn fairly quickly.

This was a great find, and we're glad we were able to check it out.  Grand Junction really has a variety of landscapes to take in and enjoy.  The monument is a beautiful place to spend some time and see what wonders nature can create.  It would be really interesting to see it around sunrise or sunset to see the light play on the rock formations.  Maybe tomorrow.

Here's a slideshow of some of the pictures we took today.