Colorado National Monument

Colorado National Monument is operated by the National Park Service and is near Grand Junction, Colorado. Canyons and red rock formations make up the landscape of this monument.  There are scenic views from trails and Rim Rock Drive. The monument's feature attraction is Monument Canyon, which runs the width of the park and includes rock formations such as Independence Monument, the Kissing Couple, and Coke Ovens. The monument includes 20,500 acres.

One plus to visiting the monument is that it is not as crowded as some of the national parks. It was established as a national monument in 1911. There are three tunnels you will drive through along the Rim Rock Drive. There are several hikes in the park, but as I am sure I have mentioned in other posts, we are not hikers. We will do short hikes to must-see spots, but that's about it. Along the Rim Rock Drive, there are 19 pullouts and overlooks, and we did not stop at all of them. We made stops at Cold Shivers Point which overlooks Columbus Canyon, Ute Canyon View, Artists Point, Coke Ovens Overlook, and Balanced Rock View, which provides a great view of this 600-ton boulder. The Coke Ovens Overlook was a unique stop-these coke ovens are conical in shape and were built by early miners to convert wood and coal into charcoal.

We also stopped at the Saddlehorn Visitor Center so I could get my passport stamp. Getting passport stamps for all the National Parks I visit has become a hobby of mine.

Once you reach the end of the Rim Rock Drive, you are at the west entrance in the town of Fruita. This is a very cute, quaint town with a traffic circle. We parked and walked around, and decided to eat at Hot Tomato, where we tried their pizza and calzone. Both were pretty good. 

https://www.nps.gov/colm/index.htm