monument canyon view // ADVENTR.co

Black Ridge Trail – Rim Rock Drive Hike n’ Bike Loop

Heart of the World | Sunday, June 1, 2025

While Diane and I were originally planning to beat the heat this weekend by backpacking on top of the Grand Mesa, after driving up onto the Mesa Saturday morning we found that the road to our desired trailhead was still gated and closed so we decided to just return home to take a break and relax instead. Of course, I just couldn’t stay home all weekend, so I decided to head up into the Colorado National Monument very early on Sunday morning so I could continue working on my Heart of the World project by hiking the Black Ridge Trail and then competing a loop by riding my bike back to the trailhead on Rim Rock Drive. Although it seems pretty popular among road bikers, I have never really had the desire to bike any part of Rim Rock Drive before, but I thought it might be fun to try it once. I left home well before sunrise on Sunday morning and dropped my bike off at the Upper Liberty Cap Trailhead before continuing on to the other end of the trail at the Visitor Center to start the hike.

Short Walks from Rim Rock Drive

Heart of the World | Wednesday, February 26, 2025

When I left from work this afternoon the clouds over the Grand Valley were looking nice so I made a last minute decision to head up into the Colorado National Monument so I could take some photos from the overlooks and continue working on my Heart of the World project. After driving to Fruita I looped back to Grand Junction via Rim Rock Drive through the park and went for a few walks on short trails from the road including Otto’s Trail, the Coke Ovens Trail and the Ute Garden Interpretive Trail. It was a nice way to spend a couple hours after work as the days continue to get longer.

A Drive through the Colorado National Monument

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, September 10, 2024

So, this post isn’t really going to be much of a Trip Report, I just wanted to share a few photos I took during a quick drive through the Colorado National Monument this evening. I just bought a new compact camera that arrived yesterday and I wanted to put it through it’s paces right away in order to make sure that I really wanted to keep it, and I figured that stopping at a few of the overlooks along Rim Rock Drive would be a quick and easy place for me to do that. Plus, it’s been quite a while since I drove though the Monument and I was long overdue for another visit. Anyway, here are a couple of the test shots I took this evening, and so far I am pretty impressed with this little camera and am going to keep it.

5 Comments

Monument Canyon

Sunday, September 15, 2013

On Thursday evening my friend Lisa contacted me to let me know she was taking a last minute trip to the Colorado National Monument this weekend and she wanted to see if I was available to go hiking on Sunday morning. It just so happened that I planned to be home all this weekend and was planning on hiking around the Monument already. We planned to meet up on Sunday morning and hike Monument Canyon from top to bottom. It has been a few years since I hiked the full canyon and I was looking forward to it. We met at the lower trailhead at 8:00am, left her car there and then took my Jeep up to the upper trailhead.

Clearing Storm at the Colorado National Monument

Sunday, January 27, 2013

By now I’m sure many of my regular readers are tired of seeing photos from the Colorado National Monument. For those of you who might feel that way, I’m sorry to say I have another trip report of photos taken there. Better stop reading now! After spending over five hours photographing the inversion layer in the Monument on Saturday I had no plans to return on Sunday. However, in the afternoon I noticed the clouds that had been hovering over the Grand Valley all day were finally beginning to break up. I couldn’t resist, so I grabbed my camera and drove back up there. I’m glad that I did!

3 Comments

Tag: monument canyon view

Black Ridge Trail – Rim Rock Drive Hike n’ Bike Loop

Short Walks from Rim Rock Drive

A Drive through the Colorado National Monument

Monument Canyon

Clearing Storm at the Colorado National Monument