The drive from Kemmerer, WY to Grand Junction, CO is a beautiful, windy two lane road that takes you through some beautiful scenery and some pretty exciting mountain passes. Our destination was Colorado National Monument. I hadn’t been there since I was in college (despite living in CO for 10 years!) and had forgotten how beautiful it is. To me, it was always the transition between the alpine mountains along the Continental Divide and the deserts of Utah — sentinels of red rock that have eroded over time and now make up the 32 square miles of constantly amazing terrain.
Colorado National Monument is one of the iconic “red rock” parks in the region. It is pretty much iconic of what you think of (scenery-wise) when you think of the Old West — monoliths; buttes; plateaus; and endless, sheer-walled red rock canyons. Like a number of other national parks and monuments, it took a somewhat crazy zealot (in this case John Otto) to protect and promote this land of extraordinary geology. He built the first trail, surveyed the first road, and climbed the monoliths to plant American flags there. Ultimately the land became a national monument in 1911 and was really opened up to the public with the construction of the Rim Rock Drive in 1937 by the Civilian Conservation Corps under the Works Progress Administration. This 23 mile winding road takes you through the length of the park, opening up amazing vistas. We spent most of our time on the Rim Rock Drive and the trails that come of it. We intended to hike in the Monument Valley, but with temperatures reaching the mid-90s, we decided to pass.
So now comes the bad news. You may have noticed in many of the photos that I have been wearing a brace on my right arm. It was to help keep compression on an injury to my right elbow area I got about 3 weeks ago. I hoped it was going to get better, but it has only gotten worse. I finally went to an orthopedic doctor yesterday (the mountains have an unusually large number of orthopedic doctors!) and learned I have a torn bicep tendon. Surgery will be a week from now. It’s ironic that is nearly a year ago when I had my back surgery. Before that time, I had never had any surgical procedures. Ah well, it’s all part of the fun!
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
