I took a bike trip to the Colorado National Monument in Fruita, CO over the weekend. The monument is a sandstone mesa that has many interesting rock formations, canyons, and scrub. It is a great place to go exploring in with many miles of trails. Many trails are right on the edge of vertical cliffs with 1500+ ft. drops.

My photos aren't as good as they could have been on this trip. This is because of the huge amount of smoke from fires in Arizona heading north. Most of the pictures would have had deep blue sky if the smoke wasn't there. Oh well, I like them anyway

Here they are:

First night at camp






.
Tried my hand at a star trail. This is one ~10 minute exposure




Morning, waking up to smoke filled skies



















Used my handy dandy remote for this one







There are countless lizards all over the mesa, many different species. Most are rather large. The Collared lizard (the bright one) was over 1 ft. long.










Hiking into a small slot canyon










Independence Rock. There were some climbers climbing the rock at the time. You can just barely see them in the close up photo. I could here them yelling "on balay" at around 6:30 am when I started hiking.










Finally, a shot of me riding through the canyons on my bike. I had my camera strapped around my neck and took the pictures with my left hand.

[crewl1]

Thanks for taking us along
The kit lens is not too shabby!

[Bob Harris]

CJ, very nice series of photos from the Monument. We have visited there several times and as your photos show, the spires, canyons and view should be seen by everyone. I like how you can tour there by auto with plenty of pullouts to stop and walk around. This is one of the least visited Federal Parks in the system, so glad you posted the thread so it will bring interest to others. Great photos and the bike looks great. Bob

[Colorado CJ]

Thanks guys. Yeah, the Colorado National Monument is a great area. This is the first time I've been there and I was only able to spend a few hours hiking (roughly 8 miles of trails). I'll definitely be going back to do some more thorough hikes. I want to get into the back country canyons and explore more.

Bob, you are right about the road through the park. There are TONS of photo opportunities right on the road, with great short trails leading to even better views.

[magkelly]

Now that's a LIZARD. Nice pics all around, but I really like the ones you did of him. Were the lizards the only creatures you encountered? Just curious.

[Ash]

Quite an amazing part of the world you've taken us through CJ.
Thank you for the virtual tour.

[EdwardConde]

Great shots... I like the pics of the lizards... nice close ups...

[yusuf]

Nice series. I liked the star trail..good one.

[Colorado CJ]

Thanks guys/gals.

Magkelly, there were countless lizards, one every few feet on the trails. Besides lizards, there were some jack rabbits and many bird species.

There were extremely fast little Swallows that I tried to capture, but they were so small and so fast, it was very hard. I only got a few shots of them, but they weren't good enough to post.

There are coyotes and foxes there as well, but I didn't see any.

[Colorado CJ]

Here's an ~80% crop showing a couple of the climbers (there were 4 in total). The guy belaying the girl climbed up there like a monkey, literally running up the cliff using the cutouts. Sure looks like a lot of fun!