April 21st - Colorado National Monument

 The next morning (Monday, April 21) we headed out to see some petroglyphs on our way to the visitors' center which we mostly bypassed yesterday. 

These petroglyphs and pictographs are thought to be the creation of the Freemont people, ancestors of the Ute Tribe. They are thousands of years old.

We enjoyed a film in the center then headed out towards Fruita and Colorado National Monument. We picked up a slow charge in Dinosaur then headed south. 

We expected Hwy 139 to be an uneventful trip. A pronghorn made a suicidal dash across the road, but Leon managed to avoid it. He even stopped after he crossed to give us the stink eye! At least it gave us the opportunity to snap a picture of the thrill seeker.

We then approached a mountain pass that was steep and somewhat treacherous. Guardrails and similar safety devices on Colorado roads are optional, so there were dozens of places on this road where one ill-timed sneeze would have sent you over the edge Thelma and Louise style. We also ended up with a few "oversize load" trucks coming by us at poorly timed locations, in addition to the large truck we were behind for 15 minutes as we climbed the mountain. 

The trip down the mountain was less anxiety-inducing and we were in Fruita before long. 

Lunch and a charge were in downtown at a nice Indian place. From there we headed to do our tour of Colorado National Monument. We quickly realized we would be travelling a similarly scenic but anxiety-inducing road to get up to the Visitors Center, about 2,000 off the valley floor. Again, Leon white-knuckled this drive and we reached the top without incident. 

We got the skinny from the park ranger and continued on our tour of the park. There is a drive along the rim of the monument with places to stop for scenic views, usually with a little hike to get to the vantage point. This part of the drive was a bit scary, but the scenery was all worth it. Short hikes brought us to one amazing view after another.

Independance Monument

Finally, we headed down the mountain at the other end of the drive to go into town for dinner and a stop to pick up a new pillow. This was also white-knuckle driving, similar to the way up.

We enjoyed our dinner in downtown Grand Junction at Pablo's Pizza. We each got our own small pies. Next, we headed back up the mountain to get to our campsite at Saddlehorn Campground. As if the drive wasn't challenging enough, halfway up we encountered three juvenile bighorn sheep in the road right after we swung around a hairpin curve. Leon stopped immediately to see how the Mexican standoff would resolve. After a few tense moments, Leon realized he had to move forward to make sure we weren't hit from behind. We slowly moved forward. Two went around the left side of the car, one appeared to head off the side of the mountain. No pictures were taken as we weren't prepared and were shocked to see them!

 After the fourth white-knuckle drive in six hours, we decided not to camp here a second night as originally planned. We found a campsite for Tuesday night in the James Robb State Park near Palisades which we found has great views and is near the Colorado River.

That evening we did a short sunset hike and took more pictures to end a day we won't soon forget!

The view from our campsite.