Day 13 – 5/25/2021 – Rifle Falls, Colorado National
Monument, Moab
Once again, we have clear skies for traveling. Before heading out on the road, we are
heading to Rifle Falls State Park; I get a picture of the Colorado River, which
was behind the hotel we stayed at last night.
Still in the hills and mountains, each one with different
contours and weathering, we are on I-70 for only about 12 miles before turning
onto route 245.
Not sure if we were on route 245 or 226 but we just missed
this deer as we drove by. We almost
missed it, or hitting it depending on how you look at it. We were able to stop before the deer crossed
the road and got a picture of it before it was gone.
As usual, we have been seeing ranches on both sides of the
road, mostly with cattle, except this one with the many sheep. The sheep all look sheared.
More ranch lands along route 226 just outside of the town of
Rifle. Grasslands, hills, and mountains,
the typical western movie location, only this is not a movie.
With its lush vegetation and waterfalls, Rifle Falls State
Park has attracted photographers and movie crews from around the country that
come to capture the area's unique scenery; including us. After the short hike, we have a fantastic
view of the falls. We clearly see the
three major water drops, and a couple minor water drops.
The two water drops on the left of the falls. One big and one little. We could have hiked up to above the falls to
look down, but this is the better viewing location.
Moving closer and to the right of the falls, we get a
different perspective. The spray from
the falls almost reaches us, but I am still able to get the picture I wanted.
Leaving Rifle Falls, we are back on the road heading to
Colorado National Monument and pass by Rifle Gap Reservoir. There are people fishing in the lake, but
what we are surprise about is that several are just big enough for a person to
sit in, almost like a kayak.
Traveling through the town of Rifle, at an elevation of 5345
feet, or the outskirts, not sure which when we drive by this 1970’s – 1990’s
M923 military truck. Someone has
prepared for whatever they think will happen, good or bad.
Back on I-70, we again can see more fantastic mountain views
to the left and right of the road. Look
at how everything weathers, the tops look like castle ramparts.
Seeing different formations in the rock conveys ones
imaginations to see things. Here, it looks
like a hiker’s cairn to mark a train; little pieces of flat rock stacked on one
another.
Driving along I-70, we follow the Colorado River. You can see how close the river is to the
road and mountainsides and they have been getting closer the further west we
drive.
A few miles before entering Grand Junction, we enter this
tunnel through the mountains.
Beginning our ride though Grand Junction to the entrance
into Colorado National Monument, we begin to see some interesting formations
and hope that this will continue throughout the Park.
After entering the park, we can indeed see that the
formations will not disappoint.
Check out the striations in this rock formation. I can count 12 layers on this wall. Imagine how long it took to build the sand
necessary for each layer. Was this area
all under water at one time, even at our altitude of over 4,600 feet?
Traveling along switchbacks to gain altitude in the park, we
come across this. Was the road cut
through the rock so it is this way or is it natural?
Either case, it is unique and wonder when it topples over will there be
a car passing through at the time.
Shortly after passing through the jaws of death, not really,
we come to a tunnel. It almost looks
like the indentation above the tunnel must have dropped rocks on the road at
one time.
Stopping at Cold Shivers Point, we get our first stopped
view of the Park. Overlooking the canyon
is this rock acting as a sentinel for the canyon.
I get a picture of Carmen while she is taking pictures of
the canyon.
Carmen gets a picture of these white flowers. We are still unsure of the names of the
flowers we are seeing and hope that someone will know what the flowers are.
Back in the car we move on to the next overlook, which is
Red Canyon and just look at the view.
Wow!
Speaking of flowers, Carmen gets a picture of these blue
flowers, in the jumble of grass. These I
think are Bluebells, but as all of the flowers we have seen, do not expect that
to be correct.
While Carmen was getting a picture of blue flowers, I was
taking a picture of yellow flowers. My
guess is that these might be Heartleaf Arnica, but again not sure.
Looking up Red Canyon, we have great views no matter which
way we look.
Along the edge of the cliff to Red Canyon were these juniper
trees. I find the shapes of the juniper
trees are fascinating. Look at the
twists.
We come to Ute Canyon and like the others; all I can say is
wow, again.
Ah, we see again, what I think are Bluebell flowers, this
time not in grass.
Now, we have seen these flowers at different places in the
mountains, but never in such good condition or close enough to get a
picture. It is a small, delicate
flower. And as usual, we are not sure of the name of the flower, but we think this might be Fairy Trumpet.
Not here just for the flowers, we are also looking at the
canyons, here is another view of Ute Canyon before we leave for the next
overlook.
We come to Fallen Rock Overlook and after parking the car,
we find ourselves right next to these flowers.
They look similar to a white daisy, but the flower pedals seem finer. I still think they are of the daisy family.
After a short hike to the lookout, we can see why the name
Fallen Rock Overlook. Looking to the
other side of the canyon, we can see where part of the rock wall collapsed and
instead of falling face forward the slab fell straight down and slid 100 feet
to rest standing upright in the debris field.
The next overlook is Upper Ute Canyon.
While Carmen stayed at the canyon rim, I hiked along the path following the rim
to a viewpoint that indicated an outline of an “Egyptian Mummy”. Do you see it? It appears whiter than the surrounding rock
and sits on top of the darker rock.
Carmen cannot seem to get enough of the Bluebells, as I call
them. Whenever she sees a nice grouping,
she has to take a picture.
Getting back to where Carmen is, I see these partial caves
on the opposite side of the canyon.
Before we head out, I get another look at Upper Ute
Canyon.
Moving on to Highland View, we see this deep cave carved out
of the canyon wall. I thought I saw
something in the cave, but decided that was only my hope. Nothing is there, but decided to show it to
you anyway. Maybe bats are in there,
waiting for nightfall.
Looking the other way, the canyon runs along with rocks that
seem to separate from each other. It is
almost as if the rocks are getting ready to fall over; maybe in another couple
hundred years.
We get to Artists Point and after parking the car, we notice
several people looking the wrong way, so we go over to check it out. When we get around the cars we see a Desert
Bighorn Sheep feeding on a bush. As I
started to take a picture of him eating, a dog in a vehicle barked and it
turned his head.
While it was eating the bush, I get another picture of the
Bighorn Sheep before I head out to check out the canyon.
Check out all of the “windowing” of the canyon wall.
Looking along a different section of the canyon, we can see
several rock spires where the rock wall jutes out.
As I move around, we see this rock wall and you can once
again see the layering of the stone. The
harder stone erodes less than the softer rock around it and this creates the
different formations.
As we are driving away, the Bighorn Sheep is walking down the
road. While we are passing him by, we of
course took more pictures. Of course, we
cannot help ourselves.
Now at Coke Ovens Overlook, in the center of the picture,
named for the natural formations, resemble manmade ovens used to convert coal to
coke. The ridge comes in from the right
and erodes more and more as the ridge extends.
Many of these ridges, like other ridges we have seen, made
up of harder rock surrounded by softer stone.
Weathering creates the ruggedness at the top of the ridges as the softer
stone weathers faster than the harder stone.
A different angle and closer view from above, we can also
see the ridge and spires of the further ridge where more weathering has created
more separation. You can see the juniper
trees that are the vegetation along the base.
Parking now at Monument Canyon, we look west and see why the
canyon gets its name. As you can see,
weathering has created spires. Look at
the tops of the rock on the left, they have not weathered as fast as the rock underneath
creating mushroom tops.
Looking north along the canyon, we can see the mesa on the other
side and out beyond into the valley and the mountains beyond. Check out the hoodoo on the right side with
the flat cap on the top.
We now move to the overlook named Grand View. This weathered formation looks like a group
of people all bunched up.
The end of this ridge has weathered into several
hoodoos. We can see these and the ridge
beyond all have the flat rock on the top with the excessive weathering under
it.
How this rock ended up all by itself is beyond me. Many years of erosion went into separating
this one rock from the others.
Carmen saw this juniper tree just hanging out on the edge of
the cliff. Notice that it is leaning out
over the rock edge and not over the rock itself.
At the overlook, named Independence Monument, we can see the lone
monolith in the distance. When Colorado
National Monument was designated in 1911, John Otto made the first ascent of
Independence Monument, and then continued the climb every Fourth of July. He would make the climb to the top and plant
an American flag.
Today you can still climb to the top of Independence
Monument on a guided trip with one of the approved climbing outfitters. You can hike to the base of the monolith using
Otto’s trail. I think there are a number
of people that continue to climb the rock on July forth as John Otto did and
plant an American Flag.
Driving by the Colorado National Monument Visitor Center
near the west entrance, we make a quick stop at Fruita Canyon. Here we can see the road we will soon be on
to exit the park. Look at how small the
car looks.
We travel through a couple of tunnels, this being the first
of the tunnels. We had a tunnel coming
in from the east entrance and tunnels leaving from the west side.
When we got to the bottom that we saw before the tunnels,
the tight turn has a pull-off called Balanced Rock View. We did not stop, but got a quick picture of
Balanced Rock anyway.
Having traveled what we saw from the Fruita View, we come up
to Redlands View area and we see a Bighorn Sheep, high up on the right and slow
down. Then we see several more on the
left side. This one was also high up on
the wall.
I quickly get out of the car and Carmen pulls off to the side
of the road, there is no pull-off parking area and she in half in the road, while I get a picture of a small sheep moving away from a group of sheep. No horns yet, but he seems to get along okay. It is definitely young, maybe a year old.
There are another group of four of the Bighorn Sheep eating at the buffet
bush. The one facing away from us just
has his horns beginning to protrude.
Another of the Bighorn Sheep was right next to the road having
lunch at this bush. He looks bigger than
the others do; maybe that is why he is by his self.
As I was heading back to the car, Carmen is parked in a no
parking area, I happen to see the first Bighorn Sheep we saw when we first
drove up. I get a quick picture before
getting in the car and leaving the park. I
have to admit, we thoroughly enjoyed Colorado National Monument and if you are
ever in the area, we highly recommend you take the 3-5 hours to drive Rimrock
Drive. You do not have to stop as long
as we might have at each stop, but the views are fantastic.
After leaving the Park, we drive 21 miles before reaching
Utah. Then another 30 miles and we have
a good view of Mt Peale. At 12,726, Mt
Peale is the highest point in the La Sal Mountains of San Juan County. It is also the highest point in Utah outside
the Uinta Mountains.
We make the turn off from I-70 to Moab along US route-191
and can begin to see the ruggedness of the mountains.
Check out these formations as we near Arches National
Park.
As we near Moab and our hotel, we get a look at more
mountains. Check out the area on the
left, an arch that seems to be building.
Tomorrow we will explore Arches National Park and look to
get to the entrance gate by 8:00am. Our
first stop in the plan is Delicate Arch since the parking lot fills fast.
