BGuthrie Photos: CO -- Colorado Natl Monument

CO -- Colorado Natl Monument:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. COLONM_060531_015.JPG: Balanced Rock
2. COLONM_060531_020.JPG: Balanced Rock: When water, wind, and chemicals act on the sandstone walls of these canyons, the results are sometimes remarkable. Balanced Rock, a 600 ton boulder, has been left perched on the canyon wall while most of the rock that once surrounded it has weathered away. Its sculptured form was determined by zones of weakness -- vertical joints (cracks), horizontal bedding planes, and soft layers in the rock. Balanced Rock was once part of the canyon wall. Some day it will be part of the rubble on the canyon floor.
3. COLONM_060531_022.JPG: Rocks in Layers: The rocks of Colorado National Monument were formed over many millions of years. Some are made from lake-bottom sediments. Other layers are made of sand dunes turned to stone. Each layer is different in color, mineral content, and durability. The canyon walls you see here are part of the lower layers, the Chinle and WIngate Formations. More recently deposited layers are found higher in the park.
4. COLONM_060531_035.JPG: Rocky Roads: The first people to witness this view were probably Indians who had to scale the steep cliffs and talus slops. Later, ranchers dug narrow passages up into the canyons to bring their cattle to graze in the rich highland valleys above. You can see one of their trails below. Begun during the Great Depression and completed after World War II, scene Rim Rock Drive remains an eloquent tribute to those who built it. Skilled workers, many from the local area, did the challenging work of drilling, blasting, and masonry, while manual labor was done by hard working young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
5. COLONM_060531_042.JPG: That's the town of Fruita in the distance
6. COLONM_060531_047.JPG: The Colorado Plateau: Colorado National Monument lies near the northeast edge of the Colorado Plateau, a geologic region covering 150,000 square miles of some of the world's most spectacular scenery. Brilliantly colored rocks, steep cliffs, mesas cut with deep canyons, infrequent rain, and sparse vegetation are hallmarks of the area. This vast plateau has acted independently of surrounding regions for millions of years -- uplifting, subsiding, eroding, and constantly changing. The most recent uplift, about 10 million years ago, raised the entire plateau to its current elevation, averaging a mile above sea level. [The Colorado Plateau makes up a major chunk of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. It includes a large number of national parks including Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, Mesa Verde, Canyon de Chelly, Sunset Crater, Petrified Forrest, El Morro, Bandelier, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison.]
7. COLONM_060531_050.JPG: A map of the Colorado Plateau
8. COLONM_060531_082.JPG: At the visitor center, they have a display to John Otto, trail builder, promoter, and first custodian of the Colorado National Monument (which was established in 1911).
9. COLONM_060531_096.JPG: Lots and lots of rabbits...
10. COLONM_060531_152.JPG: Independence Monument
11. COLONM_060531_153.JPG: Independence Monument: Most monuments are built by people. But this impressive monolith was created through a natural process called "differential erosion." Rocks wear away, or "erode", at different rates. Soft rocks, like the sandstones that form the canyon walls, wash away quickly. Harder rocks, like the ones that cap the mesas, erode more slowly. Fractures are especially prone to decay. Most of the rock that once filled the canyon has been dissolved and carried away by streams, but the hard capstones of the Independence Monument have protected it like a roof. "Balanced Rock" and the "Coke Ovens" are other examples of differential erosion.
12. COLONM_060531_196.JPG: The Half Tunnel Tragedy: Building of the Rim Rock Drive was a difficult and dangerous project that took 15 years to complete. Construction began during the Great Depression by men who felt lucky to have jobs. On the afternoon of December 12, 1933, workers were excavating the half tunnel, a section of roadway beneath the overhang just ahead. The unsupported rock of the overhang began to crack and groan, suddenly collapsing and killing nine National Park Service employees. All who died were local men -- residents of nearby Fruita and Glade Park.
13. COLONM_060531_327.JPG: The Coke Ovens: Sandstone weathers into unusual shapes. Here a ridge between two canyons is eroding into a series of domes. The key factor in shaping these adjacent monoliths is the upper layer of harder rock. The cap layer is breakable, but resistant to erosion. Where the cap layer remains, the softer rock beneath is protected; where it has broken away, the underlying formation has rapidly eroded to a rounded form. The dome-shaped sandstone monoliths in front of you were named for their resemblance to man-made ovens used for producing coke from coal.
14. COLONM_060531_334.JPG: The Coke Ovens
15. COLONM_060531_381.JPG: Early Residents: Standing here 10,000 years ago you might have watched a hunter collecting material to make arrowheads. The gray-green rounded slopes and hilltops across the canyon contain quartzite, a mineral prized by the early people of this area for tools and weapons. Other early residents included the Fremont people of a thousand years ago, whose rock art still adorns canyon walls. Ute people frequented these mesas and canyons until the 1880s, when the pressures of Euro-American exploration and settlement drove them from their ancestral homes.
16. COLONM_060531_441.JPG: Two Trees of the Plateau: The sheer cliff faces and the unstable talus slopes beneath them bear few trees. But here on the plateau there is enough soil and just enough water to support a hardy plant community. Notice that two species predominate -- the pinyon pine and the Utah juniper. Both grow slowly and sometimes live as long as 800 years.
17. COLONM_060531_455.JPG: A Canyon Profile: Do you notice a difference in the canyon walls here? One side is sheer and rocky, while the other side slopes gently and has more plants. This pattern is found throughout canyon country. Cliffs on the north side are sheltered from direct sunlight. This slows the cycle of expansion and contraction that weakens rock and results in rock falls. With less sunlight, water evaporates slower, helping to build soil and allowing plants to take root. Plants slow erosion by anchoring the soil and sheltering underlying rock from the elements. North-facing walls usually slope gently and have more trees, while south-facing canyon walls are rugged and barren.
18. COLONM_060531_523.JPG: Ute Canyon: You are standing near the head of the longest canyon in the park (4 miles). Not far from here, the canyon narrows into a ravine. Just above that is little more than a ditch or gully beside the road. Another few thousand years of periodic rainstorms will turn the ditch into a chasm as was as the one in front of you. Evolution of Ute Canyon: Water and wind continually carve and sculpt the sandstone. Moisture slowly dissolves the "cement" that holds the sand grains together. Streams carry the eroded particles from the canyon out to the Colorado River.
19. COLONM_060531_529.JPG: Ute Canyon
20. COLONM_060531_565.JPG: Canyon in a Canyon: Red Canyon is really two canyons. Most obvious is the broad U-shaped canyon with the tall sandstone walls. But notice the smaller V-shaped cut in the middle of the canyon floor. Water has begun to carve into the hard metamorphic bedrock, but this old, pressure-treated and tempered rock wears away much more slowly than the fragile sedimentary canyon walls. By the time the small canyon reaches the depth of the larger one, all of the sedimentary layers above it will probably be gone.
21. COLONM_060531_568.JPG: Canyon in a Canyon
22. COLONM_060531_620.JPG: The sandstone has attracted quite a few graffiti people
23. COLONM_060531_628.JPG: An entire group of people from Wetmore Colorado decided they had to let us know they'd come this way.
24. COLONM_060531_699.JPG: It was getting dark and the town of Grand Junction was lighting up
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AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Colorado National Monument
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Colorado National Monument (often simply referred to as The Monument) is a part of the National Park Service near the city of Grand Junction, Colorado, in the western part of the state. It is a semi-desert land high on the Colorado Plateau. The area hosts a wide range of wildlife, including pinyon pines, juniper trees, ravens, jays, Desert Bighorn Sheep, and coyotes. Activities include hiking trails, horseback riding, mountain biking, and scenic drives through the park. There are magnificent views from trails and the Rim Rock Drive, which winds along the plateau. Nearby are the Book Cliffs, and the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, the Grand Mesa.

Its feature attraction is Monument Canyon, which runs the length of the park, and includes rock formations such as Independence Monument, Window Rock, and Coke Ovens. The monument includes 20,500 acres (32 square miles), much of which has been recommended to Congress for designation as wilderness.

Park History:

The area was first explored by John Otto, a drifter who settled in Grand Junction in the early 20th century. Prior to Otto's arrival, many area residents believed the canyons to be inaccessible to humans. Otto began building trails on the plateau and into the canyons. As word spread about his work, the Chamber of Commerce of Grand Junction sent a delegation to see what he was doing. The delegation returned praising both Otto's work and the scenic beauty of the wilderness area. The local newspaper began lobbying to make it a National Park.

The area was established as Colorado National Monument on May 24, 1911. Otto was hired as the first park ranger, drawing a salary of $1 per month. For the next 16 years, he continued building and maintaining trails while living in a tent in the park.

Trails:

The Monument contains many hiking trails, with lengths and difficulties to suit all tastes. Before hiking in the Colorado National ...More...
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Directly Related Pages: Other pages with content (CO -- Colorado Natl Monument) directly related to this one: [Display ALL photos on one page]:
- 2003_CO_Colorado_Mon: CO -- Colorado Natl Monument (20 photos from 2003)
- 1971_CO_Colorado_Mon: CO -- Colorado Natl Monument (18 photos from 1971)
Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [Natural Beauty] [Park (National Park Service)]
2006 photos: Equipment this year: I was using all six Fuji cameras at various times -- an S602Zoom, two S7000s,a S5200, an S9000, and an S9100. The majority of pictures this year were taken with the S9000. I have to say, the S7000s was the best camera I've used up to this point.. Trips this year: Florida (two separate trips including Lotusphere and taking care of mom), three weeks out west (including Yellowstone), Williamsburg, San Diego (comic book convention), and Georgia. Number of photos taken this year: 183,000.
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