The Colorado National Monument is west of Grand Junction, Colorado (exit 26). The monument/park is a 25-mile drive through some very unusual mountainous terrain. The Road Runner kept coming to mind. $5.00 gets your car into the park. If you start before 7:30 am or after 4:30 pm, you get in free.

If you start at the Grand Junction end of the park (as opposed to the Fruita end), it seems like you are taken through most of the town of Grand Junction. Brown signs point you a direction. Then it seems like you see no signs for a long time and wonder if you are lost. Just keep going straight until another sign tells you to turn. The street layout of Grand Junction seems very strange, indeed.

This ride is NOT recommended for those afraid of heights. Much of the drive is on a road carved on the edge of the mountains. The road swerves and curves and dips and climbs. The drop-offs are hundreds of feet down. There are several places where you can climb on a rock and dangle your feet over a 300 foot drop-off.

Countless pull-off points are found along the entire route. Many places describe what you are looking at. The Coke Ovens are one interesting example.

The famous Balanced Rock is near the west end of the park. If you are going east to west, you can easily miss the sign for it at the end of a horseshoe turn.

The west end of the park takes you to the town of Fruita, CO (I-70 exit 19). It has some dinosaur museum. Do not confuse that with the Dinosaur National Monument that is 110 miles north of Fruita.