Blogs from Colorado National Monument, Colorado, United States, North America

Thursday July 18 – Rim Rock Drive and back to Denver – I woke up early and although I tried to go back to sleep I was unable to do so and so finally go up. I really hated that as it meant that I would be tired for most of the day. So I drank a coke to get a little caffeine and sugar in my system and then loaded up my truck and headed out to drive the Rim Rock Drive. The Rim Rock Drive was awesome with lots of canyons and rock structures to see. It is fairly long however and with the constant weaving on switchbacks I started falling asleep. I kept on as there really was no place pull over and rest and then started getting really sleepy and so started ... read more

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 ... read more