Colorado National Monument

Friday, 9/21

We woke up to a sunny but cool morning---left around 9am to drive to the trailhead.  The drive alone was pretty hair-raising, ueber-switchback-y two-lane road hugging the canyon wall on one side.  The other side's minimalist "guard rail" of 18" high stone blocks was all that stood between us and, well, death.  We took it slow and easy and made it just fine.

Our hiking  trail descended almost immediately into a series of switchbacks and stairs hewn out of the rock by FDR's Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (the C.C.C.), who were responsible for many of the trails and tunnels roads and Visitor's Centers we've enjoyed in the past 2 months.   They are treasures.

This is cryptobiotic soil, which represents decades of biological growth, and should NOT be stepped on, lest all that work go to waste (just so you know)...we see it all the time on our desert hikes.  And we do not step on it.

I'm about a third of the way down already.  There really is a trail  here somewhere!

 We had a great view of the "monuments" on our way down.

These are about 500 feet tall

We hiked down and then walked in the valley amidst all this amazing rock

A view from the bottom of the wall we just climbed down (really)

 We had the trail almost completely to ourselves for 2 1/2 hours.  Just lovely.

These are called the "Coke Ovens" (formerly the Haystacks).  I think they look even more like beehives.  Or clay bread ovens.

We practically flew back up the canyon path....we are rockstars!!   After a delicious meal, we headed into Grand Junction for a look at Cabela's (it's like LLBean but totally oriented toward hunting.  I've never seen so much camouflage, ammo, or taxidermified big game on display in my life....there must have been a hundred of them).  We found wonderful reclining ("zero gravity") fold-up chairs for relaxing outside....incredibly comfortable.  And on sale!  Then we even found a library with internet (which is where I'm typing at the moment).

Oh, on our way we passed some very interestingly named streets, such as  F 1/2 street.  "F" and a half?!  There were a lot of streets with "1/2" in their names, but this one was definitely the most unusual.



Tomorrow we leave for Black Canyon of the Gunnison.