Hiking Monument Canyon in the Colorado National Monument, Fruita, Colorado
After a full day biking the Kokopelli Loops with Mike & Mike (see previous blog post), I was ready for a day of hiking. My friend, Liz, who was also in Fruita with us was up for the adventure as well so we split off from the guys and did a ladies hike that day. Neither of us had been to the Colorado National Monument before so we decided to do a hike there, in Monument Canyon to be exact. We decided to get an early start since the hike was going to be over 10 miles, and we didn’t want to do too much hiking in the heat of the middle of the day. Even though it was November, it still gets hot in Fruita!!
We set out from the trailhead right around sunrise with only 3 other cars in the parking lot. The lady we parked next to was going to run the trail we were looking to hike, and she certainly wasn’t the only trail runner we saw that day. As we set out from the parking lot, the trail went along a fence for the first half mile that kept hikers out of the backyards of several homes. After 10 minutes of walking, the trail veered to the right and started walking away from civilization and into the beginning of the canyon.
It didn’t take long for us to find our first bit of excitement that hike. Within the first mile of walking up the canyon, we ran into a herd of ~25 bighorn sheep. When they would see us, they would typically stop and just stare at us to see what we would do next. It was actually quite hard to see how many there were because they blended in so well with the surroundings. We saw some bigger males and females cross the trail in front of us, clearly trying to lead some of the younger sheep down into the valley. Some of the younger sheep were still working on their listening and following directions" skills so they got some “nudging” (looked more like head-butting) from mom and dad. At one point, a handful of younger sheep were playing and jumping around in a circle right in the middle of the trail in front of us. We watched them for about 10 minutes just playing around, but then we started to make a little bit of noise so they wouldn’t forget we were there. We would also need them to get off the trail so we could continue hiking. We made sure not to get too close to them at any point as you never can predict what a wild animal will do! After about 15 minutes of just watching the bighorn sheep in their natural habitat, they cleared off the trail, and we were able to continue on our way.
Shortly after this encounter, we came to a viewpoint that looked at the next part of the canyon we were going to hike in to. We stopped to take a few pictures and soon realized we were being watched by another group of bighorn sheep. So many sheep within a 30 minute span! These sheep watched from afar and allowed us to continue along the trail after taking some pictures.
A little while later we came to an intersection by Independence Monument - right would take us down Wedding Canyon and ultimately loop back to the car and left would take us the way we wanted to go in to Monument Canyon. We went left, however, we were planning on taking Wedding Canyon back to the parking lot on our way back. If you are looking for a much shorter hike than the one we did, you could take Wedding Canyon and loop back to the car. This loop would be about 4.5 miles and would be one I’d recommend.
Independence Monument in the middle of the photo
After going left, we started following the contours of the canyon walls on the west side of Monument Canyon. We passed quite a few different towers: Kissing Couple, Airport Tower, Egypt Rock, Rainbow Tower, and Clueless Tower to name a few, with each one having us stop to view the reason why it was given its name. My favorite was the Kissing Couple tower as it was remarkable in my opinion that a tower of rocks could actually look like two people kissing!
The “kissing couple” can be seen on the left
Eventually, the trail started turning and the Coke Ovens came into view, which was going to be our turnaround point. We spent some time oohing and aahing these rock formations and then turned our attention to getting up to them. At this point we were still on the canyon floor and clearly needed to go up some part of what looked like a cliff to get to the Coke Ovens viewpoint. As we got closer, we saw the trail did indeed find a way up through the cliffs in a much more mild manner than we expected when we first saw where we had to go.
The way up through the cliffs!
Can you spot the trail?
Snack break views
Ultimately, we made it to the Coke Ovens viewpoint, although ironically the best view of the Coke Ovens was actually from the valley floor where we came from. The viewpoint was better for views to appreciate how vast and grand the canyon we came up from actually is. Since we had essentially reached the halfway point of our hike, we decided to have a snack, rest our feet, and take in some of the view.
Looking at the Coke Ovens
View from the Coke Ovens viewpoint
Looking back at the canyon we hiked up, Coke Ovens on the right
Once we were rested, we turned around and went back the way we came. One of the things I loved about this hike is how different everything looks when you’re walking the same trail from a different direction. It’s almost like you are doing another hike when you are looking at the towers and walls from the other side.
On our way back one of the coolest things to see was several rock climbers climbing Independence Monument. We saw a few people standing on top of it at one point and seeing how small they looked made us appreciate how big the Monument actually is! Once we got back to the intersection by Independence Monument, we took the trail that went through Wedding Canyon back to the car. This trail was listed as “unimproved” and I would say that was a very accurate description with it being washed out in a few parts. The trail we had taken that morning up Monument Canyon from the trailhead was in much better shape.
Can you spot the climber at the very top of Independence Monument?
Gives you some perspective about how big the tower is!
While the hike we did ended up being just over 12 miles, most of the vert was climbed in the first two miles and then again in a short, steep section before the Coke Ovens viewpoint, which in hindsight I probably would have been fine skipping. The hike took us about 6.5 hours, which includes about an hour of snack and water breaks. This trail was very popular with trail runners. This is one of my favorite desert hikes I have done, and I would highly recommend it to anyone that is looking to experience the Colorado National Monument. I can’t wait to go back and explore some more trails in the area!
What an awesome hike!
Can’t wait to come back.
