Colorado National Monument Self Guided Audio Driving Guided Tour

This easy hike is only half a mile and takes about 15 minutes, so I highly recommend it. If you have children along, be sure that they stay away from the edge, as it’s quite steep in places.

When you look around the Redlands View, take a look at how the rocks seem to have different layers, almost like a cake. These are different types of rock that were exposed over millions of years of erosion by the Colorado River.

Our next stop features a rock doing a circus balancing act. Balanced Rock View offers a look at a 700-ton boulder seemingly perched precariously atop a rocky pillar.

Settlers in the 1880s realized that this was the perfect place to grow fruit trees. Peaches, apples, and grapes all love the sheltered valley and plentiful water here.

we’ll discover beautiful cliffs, ravines, and vistas. We’ll also hear about cattle rustlers, dinosaurs, and the famous “hermit of the Canyons.”

Note: The tour is over 45 miles long, with more than 35+ audio stories, and takes about 1-2 hours to complete.

The Book Cliffs look almost purple in some places. That’s because Mancos shale makes up the base of these cliffs. That rough, grayish stone gives way to the softer, tan sandstone that makes up the higher levels.

The Saddlehorn Amphitheater, built during the 1960s. This was part of the “Mission 66 era,” when the Federal Government worked to revitalize national parks after WWII. The amphitheater has hosted live music, plays, educational talks, ranger programs, and community gatherings over the decades.

This is a small wooden rest stop for travellers built in 1937.

When the Great Depression hit, millions of Americans were unemployed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt developed the Civilian Conservation Corp, putting thousands of young men to work on conservation projects around America.

When John Otto first started exploring this area, he gave the distinctive rock formations patriotic names. One of the most famous is Independence Monument, a towering monolith that soars above the valley below.

In Monument Canyon, you’ll see more of the colorful layers of sandstone we’ve been talking about today. These distinctive layers sit on top of the Uncompahgre Plateau. “Uncompahgre” is a Ute word that means “rocks that made the water red.” That description is certainly accurate. The distinctive orange and red-colored rocks come from the abundance of iron here.

While today we might think of a coke bottle, these formations were actually named for the brick ovens that were used to heat coal into coke in the 19th century. Coke is one of the raw materials used to make steel.

One reason people do this hike is to find petroglyphs, or ancient picture writings carved directly into the stone. Protected under small overhangs of rock, two separate pictographs are carved into the soft sandstone of the canyon.

The Liberty Cap monument also got its name from our friend John Otto. I did say he had a fondness for patriotic names. This domed sandstone formation might remind you of the beehive shapes of the Coke Ovens. But why the name liberty cap? In the early 1800s, there was a penny in circulation that had a profile of Lady Liberty pressed onto the front.

Fallen Rock is a gigantic piece of Wingate Sandstone, topped with the more durable Kayenta Sandstone formation, like many of the monuments here. This piece was once attached to the nearby cliff with softer Chinle formation sandstone.

The Ute Canyon Trail, a moderate 8-mile hike that takes about four hours to complete. Rather than doing this hike, I recommend just checking out the overlook at the trailhead, which we’ll see in a minute.

This overlook gives you a view down into the Red Canyon. This canyon is almost untouched by humans, as no trails head directly down to it. If we decide to stop and take a look, we can hear a bit more about the canyon by tapping Learn More.

It’s named because of the sheer drop on the other side of the guard rail. Unlike the other overlooks we've stopped at today, the edge of the road goes right up to the edge of the cliff here.

The next trail on our route is the Devil’s Kitchen Trail, a moderate two-mile that takes about 1 hour 30 minutes. It leads down to a series of sandstone monoliths that gather together like the walls of a small room. Arches within the pillars make windows that you can peer through.

Grand Junction has come a long way since then. Today, it’s the fourth-largest city in Colorado, but still boasts plenty of wide open spaces. Along with the Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction is home to the Grand Mesa - where skiing and snowboarding are popular in the winter - and Rattlesnake Arches - a trail where you can see 35 natural stone arches formed by erosion.