Colorado National Monument...what??

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Alright, last stop in Colorado: Colorado National Monument (CONM). Does anyone else have any clue what Colorado National Monument is like? We didn't. The reason we stopped was we wanted another stamp in our National Parks Passport, and it was along the way to Moab and Arches National Park. We were pleasantly surprised by this afterthought of a stop (which is just outside Grand Junction).

CONM was the pet project of John Otto. He moved into the area and loved Grand Junction so much (???) that he moved into the canyons and became a hermit. He became the unofficial caretaker of the canyons and gathered the residents of the surrounding areas together in support of the preservation of the canyons. In 1911, President William Taft used the Antiquities Act to create CONM, and Otto was hired on as the official caretaker of the monument, for $1 a month.

CONM was very impressive. As a part of the Colorado Plateau, it rises more than 2000 feet from the valley floor below. The sheer walls and cliffs of the canyons were breathtaking, and there was evidence of native people who used to live in the area in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs. Along a large portion of the 23 mile rimrock drive, Nickey had her eyes closed. I think she was scared about the large dropoff at the edge of the road with no guardrail. Ok, that was what made ME nervous. She was worried about large rocks peeling off of the cliff face above us and landing in the middle of the car.

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Photos

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The entrance to CONM. That road is the one we followed up from Grand Junction.

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The first very cool rock formation we saw in CONM. It was eerie being in between the two. It felt very claustrophobic and narrow with these two towering at least 100 feet above you.

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Going into the tunnel you can almost feel the weight of the rock above you. Much more impressive than the tunnel over Raton Pass on the train, because we could actually see the walls beside us.

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Nickey's eyes were closed at this point, perhaps feeling the weight of the millions of tons of rock overhead. Cody took this while slowed to a crawl, so as to not crash into the walls.

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Cold Shivers Point, at 90 degrees, not so much...unless you're afraid of heights. Not quite as long as at the Black Canyon, but definitely a better view.

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Right in front of you, in the middle, you can see that big portion of rock that is lower than the rest. Notice it has trees growing on top and it fits perfectly into the notched portion to the right of it...THIS is why Nickey's eyes were closed. Scientifically, this is caused when the softer rock underneath erodes faster than the rock above. Eventually, the stress becomes too great and a large chunk breaks off and drops straight down. We, well I, saw this a lot; Nickey didn't.

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A nice overview.

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An impressive specimen...(Michael Scott quote goes here, Patrick).

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Panorama

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Panorama

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Panorama

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A couple of rather large pieces of rock about to peel off the cliff.

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Coke Chimneys

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More awesome vistas.

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A nice view of Fruita, CO

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For the geologist in all of you.

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For being an arid desert climate, those sure do look like rainclouds. Over the next few days of the trip, we will see a lot more of these rainclouds.

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Half Tunnel. In 1933, while excavating, 9 workers were killed in a collapse. Prior to this, it looked a lot more like a half-tunnel.

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Tunnel #2.

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Aptly named "Balancing Rock." The first, and more impressive than the so-called balancing rock in Arches.

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Look at that self-timer, mini-tripod action!

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Leaving CONM. A look back at Tunnel #3...awesome!