I went hiking in Monument Canyon, home to many of the spectacular monoliths for which Colorado National Monument is known. The most iconic is called Independence Monument, shown below. It's a red-sandstone rock tower standing at roughly 450 feet, the last piece of an ancient canyon wall that has collapsed a little at a time over the last few million years.
A little bit of history: John Otto is the guy who relentlessly pushed for Colorado National Monument to be set aside as a park in the early 1900s. Some call him a free-spirit, but most say he was a total nut. He lived in the canyons by himself for close to a decade, got married in the canyon now named Wedding Canyon (it didn't last), and sent a lot of letters to the White House arguing for this area to be protected. In 1911, President Taft officially signed for the Monument, and Otto became the park's first official custodian.
Otto created the first route up Independence Monument, carving steps and even drilling holes into which he put iron bars. The bars have since been removed for safety reasons, but the steps are still used by climbers today. Otto used to climb up with an American flag and fly it on top of the tower. The tradition has continued, and on the 4th of July the local Search and Rescue team leads climbers up with a flag and apparently people hike in to the base to watch and cheer for them. I'm looking forward to seeing it on Friday!
I happened to notice some climbers while I was eating a snack at the base of Independence. This is a picture of the climbers with my camera on maximum zoom. They are WAY up there.
After watching for a while, I kept hiking up the canyon. Once I got up a little higher, I looked back and you could see two little tiny dots up on top. You can click on the photo to enlarge it. They made it!
Are you visiting any other parks while you are working there?
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