Back to Grand Junction + Hiking Colorado National Monument

From Dinosaur we headed south, with some reluctance, to the destination for our last week in Colorado.  Twenty-one weeks ago we entered Colorado and spent virtually the entire time since then in this beautiful  state.  We have thoroughly loved it here and hope to come back before too many years have passed.

For our last week we stayed in Grand Junction and planned to explore the Colorado National Monument.  This NM is the polar opposite of Dinosaur NM as far as proximity to civilization is concerned. Less than 20 minutes from Grand Junction's modest downtown, this stunning canyon landscape is a hidden-in-plain-site gem.

We did the supposedly best hike in the park, Monument Canyon, as well as the short Devils Kitchen trail and we spent considerable time at all the dozen overlooks along 23-mile Rimrock Road through the park. Check out more pictures and descriptions on the Outdoor Project:

Colorado National  Monument
Monument Canyon
Devils Kitchen


If you are ever passing through Grand Junction, it is literally a 15-mile detour  to go through Colorado NM instead, but it will take hours because it is so breathtaking. Here are some highlights of our week.

To the Land of the Dinosaurs!

A park named Dinosaur with an area over 220,000 acres, how many acres would you guess have any dinosaur bones?  How about less than one!  While it was originally established in 1915 to protect a rich quarry of dinosaur bones, the park was enlarged to its current size to protect vast canyons and a split mountain and uplifted land masses dozens of miles long. Compared to many units of the national park system, Dinosaur National Monument is lightly visited, so we headed up there to explore and get some solitude.
We camped in the park with a site right next to the Green River with nice views of the Split Mountain.  We hiked the short trail off the main park road and visited the dinosaur quarry that started it all. We drove some fair distances to explore the more remote corners of the park like the McKee Springs petroglyphs, Island Park, Echo Park and the Harpers Corner overlook hike. This is a beautiful remote park and was definitely worth the long drive there.

If you'd like to see more about these adventures, check out my Outdoor Project articles here:

Echo Park
Jones Hole
Harpers Corner
McKee Springs Petroglyphs
Dinosaur Quarry
Sound of Silence Trail
Desert Voices Trail

Birds-eye view of our campground at Green River

Taking a break on a beautiful desert hike

Prairie dog watching us pass

The dinosaur quarry has yielded over 400 complete dinosaur skeletons to-date

The historic Chew Ranch has been working this land for well over 100 years

McKee Springs petroglyphs

This is Island Park

Heritage cottonwood tree by the Green River

These bighorn sheep were unphased by us 

The view of the Yampa Bench from Harpers Corner Trail

Whirlpool Canyon from the Harpers Corner overlook

Echo Park.  Stopping the dam that was to flood this area was one of the great environmental victories in the 60's

Rifle Falls

We probably could have stayed in Aspen another week.  The weather was beautiful and the aspens were peaking, but a plan is a plan and sometimes you have to tear yourselves away. We were off to Rifle Falls and a stay at the Rifle Gap campground.  This campground was more developed than our usual fare and we hoped to get caught up on things after two weeks of no internet at our campsite. Rifle Gap is a state park with full hookups and decent cell service.  It was a very pleasant place to hang out for a week.

Rifle Gap is, well, a gap. Specifically it is a gap in the 90-mile long Grand Hogback which stretches roughly north/south about 50 miles from the Colorado/Utah border.  The Grand Hogback is a 9,000-foot range of mountains that is the boundary between the Colorado Plateau to the west--with its flat mesas and canyonlands that stretch halfway across Utah and down to the Grand Canyon in Arizona--and the peaks of the Rocky Mountains to the east.  One of Rifle Gap's claims to history is the erection of a 1,250-foot-wide orange curtain across the gap by the artist Christo. This curtain only lasted 27 hours before gale-force winds blew it to tatters.

We visited Rifle Falls, which is a very picturesque triple waterfall, and we had a blast at the Rifle annual chili cookoff.  We pigged out on chili of all flavors and colors--elk chili, pumpkin chili, green, red and purple chili.  We had heartburn for a few days, but it supported the scholarship fund for the Rifle High School kids, so what the hey.

Rifle Falls

Rifle Falls also had many limestone caves that were fun to explore

Rifle Gap

Sunrise on the Grand Hogback

Our new trailer at dawn

Aspen!

We've all heard of Aspen.  In many ways it is the iconic Colorado Rocky Mountain destination. Frequented by jet-setters, celebrities and international cartel members, Aspen evokes something in most peoples' imaginations.  We found Aspen to be a decently-pretty mountain town, booming and building like much of Colorado seems to be, and a bit overpriced in the restaurant department.  What it DOES have is some of the most spectacular fall color locations in all of the Rockies.

We spent a week in Aspen on our inexorable march west to avoid the dreaded winter.  We had a campsite just five miles from town and we explored several of the trails, bike paths and scenic wonders of the area.  We watched the full lunar eclipse from the top of Independence Pass (12,095 feet, and what an amazing drive!).  We visited the most-photographed spot in the state (the Maroon Bells as seen from Maroon Lake), at the most-photographed time of the year (peak fall color), at the most-photographed time of the day (sunrise) and guess what--we were not alone!  Quite a crowd shows up every day in late September to photograph or just plain admire this view, which lives up to every over-hyped expectation.  We drove up the beautiful Castle Creek Road and visited the old ghost town of Ashcroft in the height of the fall splendor. And we consumed over-priced coffee (in a chipped cup) and pastries served by haughty folks in a ho-hum coffee shop. But I'd go back for the aspens in fall in a heartbeat.

Maroon Bells reflected in Maroon Lake

Maroon Bells at first light

Aspens

Crater Lake at the foot of the Maroon Bells

Aspens at their peak color

Maroon Lake from the trail to Crater Lake

East of Aspen bike trail

Ashcroft ghost town building

The View Hotel...and what a view!

Pearl Pass just past Ashcroft

Pearl Pass

Aspens begin to transition to winter

Lunar eclipse

Maroon Bells from Maroon Creek Rd.

From Maroon Creek Rd.

Hiking on Hunter Creek Trail just outside of Aspen

The town of Aspen and the ski mountain behind it.