At the tail end of our recent road trip out to California and Nevada we came back through Colorado to hike with some friends who were spending spring break in Boulder.

The day before we met up with them, we stayed in Grand Junction, Colorado, and stumbled upon an outdoor treasure – Colorado National Monument.

Colorado National Monument preserves one of the grand landscapes of the American West. But this treasure is much more than a monument. Towering monoliths exist within a vast plateau and canyon panorama. You can experience sheer-walled, red rock canyons along the twists and turns of Rim Rock Drive, where you may spy bighorn sheep and soaring eagles.

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

We only had a few hours in the afternoon to checkout this awesome area so we focused on driving Rim Rock Drive, traveling west to east through the area and catching a few lookouts along the way.

As advertised, we had barely started our initial climb when we came across a herd of bighorn sheep, including some lambs! We pulled into a marked parking spot at a nearby vista point so Brian could take a few photos while I cooed over the babies and checked out some of the nearby trailheads.

We arrived at the Saddlehorn Visitor Center just after it had closed for the day, but we were able to park in their lot and walk some of the nearby roads looking for wildlife and admiring the views.

We drove the nearby loop to Book Cliffs View and then continued along the drive, snapping the horizontal red rock view below from Independence Monument View.

We saw tons of hiking trails, and we passed a number of bicyclists entering the area as we were leaving toward dinner time.

We’ve driven through Grand Junction before, but I didn’t realize what all the national monument had to offer and wish we had allocated more time to hike and explore. Next time!