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Colorado National Monument Trip Reports

The Monument at Night

Friday, December 28, 2012

With the full moon out tonight, I thought it would be fun to head up to the Colorado National Monument again and try to get a few photos of the canyons and spires lit by the moonlight with the city lights of Grand Junction and Fruita in the background. Thanks to an inversion, the temperatures in the valley were pretty cold but, it was much nicer up on the Monument.

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Christmas Eve Monument Snowstorm

Christmas Eve | Monday, December 24, 2012

On Christmas Eve it snowed all day which is a little unusual for the Grand Valley. When I got out of work, I thought it would be a good idea to drive up to the Colorado National Monument and take some photos in the snowstorm. I knew the road on top was closed because of the weather, so I went in via the Fruita entrance so I could at least drive to the Independence Monument Viewpoint. Some may find these photos boring and bland and much different from my typical ‘colorful’ images, but ...

Colorado National Monument Weekend

Friday – Sunday, December 7-9, 2012

This weekend I decided to stay home for a change. I figured that I could spend some quality time photographing the Colorado National Monument since I would be around. After work on Friday, I drove up to the Monument to try and catch a sunset that looked promising. It turned out to be a decent sunset, but not over the Monument. Instead, it was colorful over the Book Cliffs across the valley.

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Fall at the Colorado National Monument

Tuesday & Wednesday, October 16-17, 2012

Just a few short days after returning from my adventures in Northern Arizona and Southern Utah, I was ready to get and photograph some of the fall colors here in the Grand Valley. I ended up driving up to the Colorado National Monument two consecutive days after work to take a few photos.

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More Monument Sunsets

Sunday – Tuesday, July 29-31, 2012

Since the afternoon monsoons were still around this week, I headed out a few evenings to try and take some more photos during sunset.

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Monument & Juniata Sunsets

Monday, Tuesday & Friday, July 23,24 & 27, 2012

Since the monsoon season here on the western slope of Colorado is in full effect, I went out to photograph a couple of sunsets this week after work. On Monday I drove up to the Colorado National Monument right after some heavy rain had passed through the area. The road up to the Visitor’s Center was covered with debris and rockfall from some flash flooding, so I had to drive extra carefully. I decided to stop at the Book Cliffs View to take a few photos.

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Otto's Trail Sunset

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The clouds in the sky this evening were looking pretty nice, so I decided to drive up to the Monument to hopefully catch a nice colorful sunset. I didn’t get the spectacular sunset I was hoping for, but I did end up with with a few good photos while I was up there.

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Black Ridge Trail

Sunday, April 15, 2012

After spending the previous day at Rifle Falls with Amanda we decided to spend Sunday morning taking a hike we have wanted to do for a while in in the Colorado National Monument. The last time we had planned to hike the Black Ridge Trail, it snowed, so we cancelled our plans because we feared it would be a muddy and slippery mess in places. Like the previous day, the weather forecast overnight was calling for storms, but luckily the Monument didn’t see any precipitation. The Book Cliffs, on the other hand, were coated with snow ...

Grand View Sunrise

Sunday, March 4, 2012

I headed back up to the Colorado National Monument again this morning to catch the sunrise. Of course I took a few photos while I was there…

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Monuments in Fog

Colorado National Monument
Thursday, February 9, 2012

I’ve wanted to photograph Monument Canyon filled with fog for a while now, and this morning I finally got my chance. As I was leaving my house to drive to work and noticed the heavy fog that filled the Grand Valley, I just couldn’t resist the conditions and drove up to the Colorado National Monument instead. I arrived up above the fog just in time to watch the sun rise over the Grand Mesa. It was a spectacular view and definitely worth missing a few hours of work.

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