4-29 Colorado National Monument

Welcome to Colorado

We finished the fifth week of our trip at Colorado National Monument, the best kept secret in Colorado. The entrance to park is a curving mountain road and you drive through a couple of tunnels. John Otto found the canyon in 1907 and a year later he started campaigning to make it a national park, his dream came true in 1911. He was the caretaker from 1907 until 1927 for $1 a month. The canyon has magnificent red stone monuments, the largest rock formation in the park is the 450 foot high Independence Monument. Larry and I hiked the Book Cliffs View Trail, which started at the campground and ended at an overlook, we continued our hike with the Window Rock Trail which took us to the Visitor Center. As we hiked we stopped to look at the canyon and its wonders. While at the Visitor Center we watched a movie about the park and the geology of the park. We took the main road back to the campground, which was shorter. 

A tunnel we drove through

Camping at Colorado National Monument

Window Rock

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Larry on the trail

The canyon from the hiking trail