Alt Text

Map of Colorado National Monument in Colorado. The angular outline of the monument, which loosely resembles a teapot with the spout to the left, is green and the surrounding topography shades of tan and beige.

Extended Description

Monument Road, represented with a yellow line, enters the park from the bottom left corner and curves up and across to the other side to line the upper edge of the park as the Rim Rock Drive. It passes a Visitor Center close to the right tip of the park. This description will use the path of the road to navigate through this map to list sites and amenities along the road from left to right. Then the locations of trails and canyons will be described.

Along Rim Rock Road

Monument Road meets the park near East (Grand Junction) Entrance at the bottom left corner. Then, as Rim Rock Road, it then passes the following sites on its way to the highest point as the park is shown here:

Devils Kitchen Picnic Area, which has wheelchair access, drinking water, restrooms, and a picnic area,

Cold Shivers Point which is wheelchair-accessible,

Red Canyon Overlook,

Ute Canyon View and Ute Garden Interpretive Trail,

Fallen Rock Overlook,

Upper Ute Canyon Overlook, and

Restrooms and parking at the center right of the monument’s top border.

Rim Rock Drive then descends to the right through the second half of the monument and past more visitor sites. From left to right, these are:

Highland View,

Artists Point,

Coke Ovens Overlook,

Monument Canyon View,

Grand View,

Independence Monument View, which is wheelchair-accessible,

The Visitor Center,

Fruita Canyon View, which is wheelchair-accessible,

Distant View,

Historic Trails View, which is wheelchair-accessible,

Balanced Rock View,

Redlands View, and

West (Fruita) Entrance at the right border of the park.

Once outside the park, the road would lead to Fruita and Interstate Highway 70 (exit 19), 2 miles (4 kilometers).

A network of trails lace through the park, branching off from and running along and away from Rim Rock Drive. From left to right, the trails are:

Old Gordon Trail,

Devil’s Kitchen Trail,

No Thoroughfare Canyon Trail,

Serpents Trail,

Ute Canyon Trail,

Corkscrew Trail,

Corkscrew Connector Trail,

Liberty Cap Trail,

Black Ridge Trail,

Monument Canyon Trail,

Wedding Canyon Trail,

Otto’s Trail, and

Alcove Nature Trail.

A collection of canyons and land formations stretch across the national monument. From left to right, they are:

Echo Canyon,

No Thoroughfare Canyon,

Columbus Canyon,

Red Canyon,

Ute Canyon,

Monument Mesa,

Monument Canyon,

Gold Star Canyon,

Wedding Canyon,

Lizard Canyon,

Fruita Canyon, and

Kodels Canyon at the rightmost tip of the monument.

Visitor Center and Saddlehorn Area

The Visitor Center, near the right edge of the park, is framed by a black square with a note to see inset above. The inset map shows the Saddlehorn Area. Rim Rock Drive enters from the top and forks so one leg meanders to the right and the other runs farther down to form a large loop. The Visitor Center is at the top of the loop and has a gift shop, wheelchair access, ranger station, picnic area, restrooms, and drinking water. Book Cliffs View is along the left edge of the bottom part of the loop, and Saddlehorn Campground to the right has wheelchair access, restrooms, and drinking water. Alcove Nature, Black Ridge, and Canyon Rim trails border the access road and loop.

Around the Park

The land surrounding the park includes McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area and Black Ridge at the top right, and the Colorado River in the bottom right corner. A note below the bottom center of the park boundary reads: “Some land outside the park boundary is privately owned. Please respect the owners’ rights and do not trespass.”

To the west of the map, a label above the scale notes that the scale varies in this perspective view, and that the approximate scale is at the visitor center. The scale below the note shows distances of 1 kilometer and 1 mile.

Legend

A legend below the scale reads as follows:

Black dashed line for Trail,

Double dashed line for Unpaved Road,

Yellow line with black semi-circle for Overlook,

Blue dashed line for Intermittent stream (flows seasonally),

Two dots connected by a line for Access gate,

Thin triangle with distances in miles and kilometers for Distance along Rim Rock Drive, and

Gray triangle with distances in miles and kilometers for Trail mileage.

Below the legend, two columns of symbols represent Ranger station, Wheelchair-accessible, Restrooms, Gift shop, Campground, Picnic area, Drinking water, and Amphitheater.