After Grand Mesa National Forest, we spend the night in Gunnison, and then visited Colorado National Monument in the morning.
Since we didn't have a lot of time, we decided to do three short hikes, go to the visitor center and drive the rim drive. Had we more time, we would have done the Monument Canyon Trail. This trail was the Canyon Rim Trail starting right from the visitor center.
There was plenty of opportunity to get close to the edge. While not one of our "favorite" national monuments, it certainly was worth stopping given its close location to the highway. The rim drive had so many bicyclists (frankly, we saw a lot of bicyclists this trip).
After the Colorado National Monument, we started our drive back east and stopped at the Hanging Lake trail right of the highway. About 1.2 miles (each way), 1000 ft.
I picked this trail based upon another blogger - blogging certainly has found us some nice locations! While the trail was a bit crowded (probably 45-50 people), it was another well-cut trail with boardwalks at the lake/waterfall.
The waters were such a unique color for Colorado, and the waterfalls flowing (not bad for September).
And then, it was on to spend the night in Aspen...big-bucks Aspen. We are happy we went, it was an experience. But, we are budget travelers, so more than one night just wasn't possible. We were off to the Maroon Bells in the morning - just about 20 minutes outside of town.
3 comments:
A lovely journey.
Last January I had the opportunity to stay in Grand Junction and ski nearby Powderhorn resort. The people I stayed with lived just across the road from the Colorado Monument. Very beautiful country!
I am enjoying seeing your photos of my home state - some of these places I've seen, and some not. I can't tell you how many times I've driven by the Hanging Lake trailhead and wanted to hike it!
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