Colorado National Monument

Cousins Paul and Leslie have been great hosts in Grand Junction, telling us about this beautiful part of western Colorado that they have called home for many years.  After church on Sunday, they showed us another gem--Colorado National Monument.  We drove to Fruita, Colorado, and then took the winding national park roads through the canyons.

 

 

We made a stop at the visitor's center, then walked the Alcove Trail across the road.  It started in the sunshine.  But true to its name, it meander into an enclosed alcove with cool shade.









At the end of the alcove, we found ourselves in a cool canyon room decorated with swirling colors.  Awesome!

In the picture below, we saw Independence Monument on the right, while Island Rock takes up the rest of the frame. Independence Monument is a 450-foot monolith, and is the largest free-standing rock formation in the park.  On the Fourth of July, a group of climbers will plant a United States flag on top.  Other times, vehicles are placed on top via a helicopter for filming television ads.

There was one beautiful view after another, all made better by the personal stories that our hosts told us.  They have hiked and explored these canyons since they moved to Grand Junction to teach school.

Leslie loves those old gnarly dead trees as much as we do, so it seems fitting that we took a picture of her with one.

We made many stops along the 23-mile rim road. The scale of what we were seeing just can't be caught on film. These beautiful canyons were carved by flowing water over millions of years. We can barely see the Book Cliffs behind them in the distance.

The trails that hikers can take down into these canyons meander 600 feet to the canyon floor.  But the colorful sheer-walled canyons plunge 600 feet in one step.  

Our last stop was aptly named "Cold Shivers Point."  For once, the idiot on the ledge is not Mark.  Clearly in an area that is off limits, that rock pedestal is a dangerous place to be. 

Before we left Grand Junction, we had a couple last minute fun things to do.  Paul took us on a great morning bike ride on a concrete trail that winds along the Colorado River.

We couldn't ride very fast because we were gawking at the views of the Colorado River, the osprey nests, and the Book Cliffs.  Paul bikes here several times a week because the trail head is only a mile from their house.

Our last errand was to purchase some of those fresh Colorado peaches.  We stopped by several neighbors' orchards before we found the perfect box of Red Globe peaches.  What a beautiful souvenir to take with us!

After biking off all those calories, we deserved another serving of the latest peach dessert we whipped up last night.  It's called, "Palisade Peach Delight" and was the grand prize winning recipe from the 2006 Palisade peach festival recipe contest. You can taste this recipe in your mind if you imagine the popular four layer chocolate dessert, with the chocolate layer replaced with a cooked layer of chunks of sweet palisade peaches.  It was delicious!  So delicious that we have already made the second batch of this dessert.


After being in Colorado for over two months, we have mixed emotions as we see this sign along the highway.  But we are on the road again towards more travel adventures looking for more of His wonders!