I would consider The Wandering Couchs, parkies! Meaning we love anything National Park related. Historical Sites, recreation areas, monuments, trails, wildlife and the National Parks we visit. Being this close to yet another spectacular park opportunity we were not going to pass up the chance to visit the Colorado National Monument.
Since it was about 100 degrees out there was no way, we were going to be hiking. But that was perfectly ok as the Colorado National Monument has a wonderful 23-mile drive. You can enter either in Fruita entrance and exit Grand Junction or vise verse. After entering with a steep and winding drive up the plateau on the North side of the rim you can take in the whole valley. The Monument drive has several stops where you can get out of the car to read the history of the park, spot possible big horn sheep, take pictures and learn about the rock formations.
The Colorado National Monument is full of red rock canyons, hoodoos, towering boulders and the start of some magnificent arches. Created by the Colorado River and the Redlands Thrust Fault line that runs East-West. Through towering rock uprisings, each turnout revealed a beautiful landscape of nature at its finest. We are very fortunate that some very smart people thought ahead to preserve the amazing lands in the United States.
We did not see any animals and I was very disappointed about that, but viewing such expansive scenery made up for that and a wonderful side tour was had.