7/10 - Tuesday - Colorado National Monument

On Tuesday we visited Colorado National Monument.

http://www.nps.gov/colm

James M Robb State Park was about a mile or so from the entrance so this was an easy driving day. We toured the park, did some hiking on Otto’s trail; plus some others and went to the visitor center. The park is very nice and easy to access even if you are just driving through, as it’s just a few miles off the highway. It’s not very big so it’s easy to stop in for a quick visit, even if you have less than a day and are just passing through. Our plan was to tour the park until after lunch and then to spend some time in the afternoon at the Dinosaur Journey Museum.

http://www.dinosaurjourney.org/

The museum was located just within a block or so of our campground. This was a nice museum for the kids. It had lots of hands on exhibits and lots of most anything you could want in a dinosaur museum. There were lots of bones, fossils, and other various exhibits. There were even a group of paleontologists working on bones that had been dug from near by sites. We also got some directions to a dig site and hiking trail where you could see real dinosaur bones and fossils still in rocks. This was a short drive down the highway to “Rabbit Valley” and the “Trail through Time” dig spot and hiking area. It was a blistering hot afternoon for hiking, but finding the bones made the trip worthwhile.

http://www.dinosaurjourney.org/maps.htm

After our hike, we went back into the park for some more hiking and exploring. The park has ‘rim rock drive’, a 23-mile drive along the top of the canyon. The road is very popular for biking and I’d certainly want to take a ride on it. The sunset views of the canyons were wonderful. The colors really come alive at that time of the day.