Colorado National Monument

The arid Westernmost portion of Colorado looks nothing like the mountainous central part of the state. It looks a lot more like the rock mazes of southern Utah. Grand Junction, though relatively small, is the population center of the region and just a few miles away from Colorado National Monument. It sits in a deep valley between the Monument's stunning vertical face to the south and the slightly less steep Book Cliffs to the north.

Yawning sandstone canyons streaked with white, tan, and orange striations dominate the landscape of Colorado National Monument. It is not quite as tall, narrow, or grand as Zion Canyon, but the sprawling valley floor below is more conducive to agriculture thanks to its width, flatness, and the Colorado River, which is replenished each year by melting mountain snowpack. From the top of the Monument, you see a pastoral quilt-work of fields and orchards attesting to this fact.

I spent my day stopping at various overlooks along the Monument's Rim Rock Drive and hiking a good portion of the Ute Trail, which descends hundreds of feet from the road into Ute Canyon where it meanders along a creek bed beneath giant sandstone structures. I spent the night in Grand Junction.