Colorado National Monument / Grand Mesa
Leaving the Uinta National Forest, we made our way to the Dinosaur National Monument to view the Dinosaur Quarry – a wall of exposed dinosaur bones that had been washed into a river bed, fossilized and the the river bed was folded up into a wall over time. There were scenic long drives around the park, but we only explored a little as the weather wasn’t great.
We then departed Utah and entered Colorado (the 11th State of our trip), and drove to the Cañon Pintado, known for its rock petroglyphs. We stopped at each roadside site and camped at the East Four Mile Interpretive site, hiking around the trail to view the petroglyphs.
Leaving Pintado Canyon behind, we climbed up over Douglas Pass in inclement weather and dropped down on the other side into Fruita where we spent the night at the Civic Hall before climbing up into the Colorado National Monument the next day. The weather was not brilliant, but the vistas from the top rim drive were still amazing.
Dropping down from the canyon rim at the end of the day, we parked in a Bass Pro carpark in Grand Junction. It is a huge hunting and fishing store and it is quite something to look around; especially the gun department!
We wanted to take the Grand Mesa scenic byway from Grand Junction through the Grand Mesa National Forest. The summit is quite high at 3,307m and the scenery was supposed to be breathtaking. But given the weather (very wet) we camped at the base for two days to wait for the sunshine. It was well worth it, it was like a Christmas card at the summit!
Coming down from Grand Mesa National Forest we made our way to Gunnison National Forest, driving the very scenic road along the north side of the Gunnison River in the canyon below. After camping on a disused part of the old highway, the next day we climbed up to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, took in the view and went for a decent hike (5 km) – more challenging at altitude.
From here it was time to make our way to the Million Dollar Highway….
