A monumental monument

So when we got into Colorado the other day (um yeah it was three days ago ... yeah yeah yeah) we stopped at the "Welcome Center".  Thumbs up to states that have welcoming welcome centers, or welcome centers at all, but I think I was on my soap box about that a few months ago.  Anyway, with all that said when I explained to the welcome center lady that we'd never been to Colorado and would be here anywhere from a week to a month the first thing she said was see the Colorado National Monument.  Well several others have mentioned that over the last few days ~ we really didn't have much interest - really I didn't care to see a statue of some guy that planted a tree or started some plantation or set a record for the biggest corn crop - I think you might get my drift.  After hearing so many people mention it, and realizing that it was less than ten miles away we decided what the heck.

We did a tiny bit of research, realized it wasn't a statue at all, grabbed our "emergency bags", some nuts and crackers and four or five bottles of water, not to mention our awesome National Park Pass (oh can't wait till the King turns 62, but for now $80. per year is such a deal), loaded the kids and the dog in the car and off we went.  Alright, NO kids, but Sir Arlo and his very very sore, gimpy feet of course went with us.  If you don't check out any of the links I put on the blog, please take the time to check out the one here.  I may be posting a dozen or so pictures but I won't be posting the history (great history) of how this monument came to be.  It is truly worth the time to read about it - if time is an issue, don't continue with this blog post, just go with the link.

With all that said, this was a day of outstanding rock formations, cliffs, heights and white knuckle driving while often times Rick had his eyes closed.  There were also three tunnels along this road which I wish I could have closed my eyes through, but since I was driving it wasn't a great idea - do you think!?!  Why is it that old farts like us still have these issues - heights, small closed places and did I mention heights?

Not to mention, there were many many switchbacks like those below - many!  But with posted speed limits of 15 - 25 mph and a fat old lady behind the wheel doing 1/2 those posted limits while traveling as much as possible on the left hand side of the road, we got through it!  UGH yes we did get through it!  I must say, however, it was worth all the stress, all the white knuckles .... all of it!

There were some overlooks along the way of this 23 mile loop throughout the "park" - not as many as I would have preferred but there were some.  The two photos below were taken from one of those overlooks - Rick wasn't able to go out as far as the railing ~ I held on tight and risked it!  Check out the "balanced" rock on the photo below.  This so amazed me what nature has done over thousands of years yet some of these just held on and persevered?!?!

Below, just random shots of outstanding awesomeness!

Below is Independence Rock - all alone, independent in its awesomeness!

Bethalene, another knarly tree for you (I believe they are a juniper) they are terrific for sure.  Sort of reminded me of what a gentleman at my Elks Lodge in the Keys pulled out of a mangrove swamp - an outstanding knarly thing - must have been seven feet across and perhaps three feet high, just all intertwined and beautiful! 

Again below, random shots of awesomeness!  (Is that even a word?)

As we were about to complete the main road throughout the "park" we came upon "balanced rock" (oh Chester how I loved your comment when I sent you a photo of this!  Can always count on you honey).  Another example of nature at her creative best!

When we decided we were going to head to Colorado rather than Nevada I thought how terrific, I'll see green instead of brown!  Well, I haven't seen as much green as I'd anticipated, and more brown than I anticipated, but I did NOT anticipate this awesomeness!  I just can not describe this area - I truly had no idea such things existed, and yeah perhaps I should have by now, but I didn't.  Rick is quick to remind me after about every tenth ooooohhhh and aaaaaahhhh - oh aren't you the one that hates the desert and all the brown stuff .... yeah yeah yeah.

With all this said, we were scheduled to be out of here this morning and guess what ~ yup, we extended three more days, which has us out on Wednesday morning, but maybe Thursday ~ Rick ordered our mail to be forwarded here and it may not arrive until Wednesday - oh horrors, we'd have to be here another day!  We plan to go to the local office of the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) tomorrow to ask about a thousand questions about camping on BLM land and how accessible it is for a rig of our size towing the trailer.  This is something we've wanted to do for some time (BTW, the third anniversary of this incredibly fortunate life of ours was Friday, October 1 ~ I think we both   went about our day in a slower pace, just appreciating how damned fortunate we are and having many flashbacks of all the outstanding people we've met (well there was that one incident with the "gentleman" at Lake Roosevelt/Grand Coolie Dam ~ not bad huh one incident in three years) and the things we've seen, the things we never imagined we'd be so fortunate to see and experience ....