Colorado National Monument offers 'pocket-size Grand Canyon'

Just off Interstate 70 in western Colorado is a 32-square-mile collection of towering red-stone monoliths, deep canyons and a road that cuts through nearly 2 billion years of geology.

Colorado National Monument might not get the attention of its better-known neighbors in Utah's canyon lands, but it's increasingly popular with cyclists, runners, rock climbers and cross-country skiers. As it approaches its 100th anniversary, there's interest in getting the monument declared a national park. It was proclaimed a national monument May 24, 1911.

"Our name has been a challenge," says Michelle Wheatley, chief of visitor services. "Because it has 'Colorado' in it and it's a monument, people a lot of times think we're just a marker on the road."

The "pocket-size Grand Canyon," as superintendent Joan Anzelmo calls it, is on the doorstep of Grand Junction, the region's largest city. The Colorado River flows north of the carved landscape that is part of the Colorado Plateau, which stretches into Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

Entering the monument's west entrance near the town of Fruita, what appear to be typical high mesas from the interstate turns into an eye-opening drive up a two-lane road anchored by sheer rock cliffs. The 4-mile-long Fruita Canyon includes Balanced Rock, a 600-ton mass atop a narrow stone pedestal.

Heading toward the visitor center, the view expands to take in one of the Colorado Plateau's last and oldest pinon-pine and juniper forests. The green pops out against the reds and tans of the rocks.

The 23-mile Rim Rock Drive is an attraction in itself. "It was carved practically out of air," Anzelmo says of the road that, when constructed, revealed rock between 150 million and 1.7 billion years old.

Monument founder John Otto, a miner bewitched with the area, started blazing the path by building trails in the early 1900s. In the 1930s, workers with the Civilian Conservation Corps and other agencies chiseled Rim Rock Drive from cliffsides and dug three tunnels. Nine workers died in a rock slide just before Christmas 1933.

There's little room for mistakes when negotiating the road's twists and turns amid 500-foot drop-offs. But the turnouts along Rim Rock Drive provide better views of Monument Canyon, the Coke Ovens and Ute Canyon. To see even more, there are 43 miles of maintained trails and more primitive paths, along with campgrounds and backcountry camping. Canyon Rim and Window Rock are accessible from the road and are easygoing short walks.

Longer, more ambitious hikes include Serpent's Trail, steep and 1.75 miles one way.The 6-mile Monument Canyon Trail has the largest concentrations of freestanding rocks, Wheatley said.

In April, the Park Service will dedicate Ute Canyon to the Ute Indians who lived and hunted in the area before being forced onto reservations.

Just off Interstate 70 in western Colorado is a 32-square-mile collection of towering red-stone monoliths, deep canyons and a road that cuts through nearly 2 billion years of geology.

Colorado National Monument might not get the attention of its better-known neighbors in Utah's canyon lands, but it's increasingly popular with cyclists, runners, rock climbers and cross-country skiers. As it approaches its 100th anniversary, there's interest in getting the monument declared a national park. It was proclaimed a national monument May 24, 1911.

"Our name has been a challenge," says Michelle Wheatley, chief of visitor services. "Because it has 'Colorado' in it and it's a monument, people a lot of times think we're just a marker on the road."

The "pocket-size Grand Canyon," as superintendent Joan Anzelmo calls it, is on the doorstep of Grand Junction, the region's largest city. The Colorado River flows north of the carved landscape that is part of the Colorado Plateau, which stretches into Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

Entering the monument's west entrance near the town of Fruita, what appear to be typical high mesas from the interstate turns into an eye-opening drive up a two-lane road anchored by sheer rock cliffs. The 4-mile-long Fruita Canyon includes Balanced Rock, a 600-ton mass atop a narrow stone pedestal.

Heading toward the visitor center, the view expands to take in one of the Colorado Plateau's last and oldest pinon-pine and juniper forests. The green pops out against the reds and tans of the rocks.

The 23-mile Rim Rock Drive is an attraction in itself. "It was carved practically out of air," Anzelmo says of the road that, when constructed, revealed rock between 150 million and 1.7 billion years old.

Monument founder John Otto, a miner bewitched with the area, started blazing the path by building trails in the early 1900s. In the 1930s, workers with the Civilian Conservation Corps and other agencies chiseled Rim Rock Drive from cliffsides and dug three tunnels. Nine workers died in a rock slide just before Christmas 1933.

There's little room for mistakes when negotiating the road's twists and turns amid 500-foot drop-offs. But the turnouts along Rim Rock Drive provide better views of Monument Canyon, the Coke Ovens and Ute Canyon. To see even more, there are 43 miles of maintained trails and more primitive paths, along with campgrounds and backcountry camping. Canyon Rim and Window Rock are accessible from the road and are easygoing short walks.

Longer, more ambitious hikes include Serpent's Trail, steep and 1.75 miles one way.The 6-mile Monument Canyon Trail has the largest concentrations of freestanding rocks, Wheatley said.

In April, the Park Service will dedicate Ute Canyon to the Ute Indians who lived and hunted in the area before being forced onto reservations.