Follow the Colorado

Colorado National Monument

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Saturday, September 26 2026

Road video and map

Although I’m still following the river, and it is visible in the road video, there are no photos of it today. Instead I visited its namesake, Colorado National Monument, for the first time. The monument is a series of deep canyons carved by ice, wind and water through 13 layers of rock deposited up to 1.5 billion years ago. They were uplifted from the ocean by tectonic forces forming the Colorado Plateau. only to be eroded into the forms visible today. Their only relationship to the Colorado river is that the rivers and streams that carved the canyons probably flowed into it. The monument is just south of the river valley and the cities of Grand Junction and Fruita, my home for tonight.

The day did not start well. The lodge I was staying at in Glenwood Springs has 99 rooms but, when I went to eat the included breakfast, I found that there are only 12 tables in the breakfast room and all seats were taken. I grabbed a cup of coffee and decided to get breakfast elsewhere forgetting that it was Saturday and, therefore, a long wait for a table anywhere. Breakfast was worth waiting for but I had lost at least one and a half hours and did not get on the road until 11 AM.

Again, the drive was rewarding with plenty of good scenery to be seen on Interstate 70 as I headed toward Grand Junction as well as in the National Monument. I started my time in the monument with a trail to Devil’s Kitchen, a rock formation near the top of a canyon that has several large monoliths of red rock surrounding a rock stump, considered to be the kitchen table.

I can’t get far enough away to show the arrangement so here is one of the monoliths. The top of the “table” is just visible at the bottom.
And here is the table which looks like a face. An interesting, if not very easily photographed, structure.

The monument has a scenic drive called Rock Rim Drive which, in places; is 2,000 feet (610 m) above the canyon floor it overlooks. There are many turnouts but the National Park Service (NPS) don’t do a good job of alerting you to upcoming overlooks as the only sign is in the actual turnout and the official map that comes with the NPS app download doesn’t mark the overlooks. I missed the first viewpoint I had planned to stop at but still found plenty to interest me.

This is Columbus Canyon as seen from Cold Shivers Point on the scenic drive.
This is called Highland View. The valley you see beyond the plateau is the Colorado river valley with the Book Cliffs mountain ridge beyond that.
In this view from Artist’s Point you can see the potential formation of a natural arch as the lower part of the wall is eroded into the canyon. If the wall is thin, but strong enough, the rock above will remain as an arch if the erosion punctures it. I am visiting Arches National Park, just 55 miles (89 km) away as the crow flies, tomorrow.
This is the Grand View overlooking Monument Canyon. The Colorado valley is also known as the Grand Valley.
The pinnacle on the right is called Independence Monument and was once part of the monolith to its left. Climbing the 450 ft (137 m) high spire is allowed, with a permitted guide. Despite a climb rating of 5.9 (very difficult), dozens of technical climbers attempt it each year and, on July 4th, a group of about 18 local search and rescue professionals make an annual climb to place the stars and stripes on top. Story here.

Definitely enjoying the trip so far!

6 thoughts on “Colorado National Monument”

    1. Thanks for following. I’m here for the nature and visitors are much fewer than I had expected. Just the way I like it!

  2. Hey Steve, as usual a masterful account of your trip through great pics and quality writing. Looking forward to your Arches visit and the Moab area. It seems you’ve picked the perfect time of year for this road adventure. Safe travels.

    1. Hi Tom, thanks for the compliments. Only have one day in Moab as the Colorado keeps on flowing, at least for now 🙂

    1. Not sure about any movies for Colorado NM but Arches NP was, apparently, featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Thanks for following.

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