Colorado National MonumentJun 19, 2009
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One of the 3 tunnels in the Monument - look at the...
old cattle trail on opposite canyon wall
Fruita below - RV Park is second row of white structures
I only traveled about 100 miles today but made it to Colorado once again. I chose this town because of its name and because it is on the Colorado River, which I seem to be following, without having planned it. I drove Miss Daisy up the Colorado Scenic Byway, since there wasn't an available BLM campsite for her on the River last night and I wanted to see things from higher up. I still love that road.
Once I got here, I found out that I am in the valley of the Colorado National Monument. So, I am not out of big rock country yet. Even though I already saw lots of rocks and canyons, I couldn't waste away the afternoon/evening, so I took went up the cliffs and rode the 23 mile Rim Road to the western end of the Monument, coming back down in Grand Junction and came back to Fruita under the shadows of the cliffs.
John Otto came in 1906, lived in the canyons alone, and campaigned hard to make the area a National Park. He built trails with a shovel and pick for people to come enjoy the area. It became a National Monument in 1911 and Otto became its first caretaker, earning $1 per month!, but he was eccentric and got fired from the job. He moved to California after that and never came back to see that a road for cars was built through part of the Monument. The Rim Rock Drive was built during the Depression, halted for WWII, then finished by 1950. People died while building the road, mostly from a collapse of a tunnel they were making. Today, there are 3 tunnels in the Monument and each are 10' 6" high. Miss Daisy can't fit on this twisty, narrow, and 3 times low height road!
