Canyons Within Canyons

We drive to the Colorado Monument, a national park outside Grand Junction and about 65 miles from Montrose. It is seriously spectacular - my photos taken in the high-noon sun - do not do the place justice. Sheer-walled canyons, towering monoliths, colorful formations, desert bighorn, sheep, soaring eagles, and a ridgeway road that freaks Sonnet out - no railings and 1,500 foot straight drops into the valley. Wow. Our first overlook, appropriately named "cold shivers" is a road-pull off and a five minute walk across the shale. There is a protective fence at the vista but one can easily walk to various edges that make my nuts crawl into my stomach in terror. The kids are ordered away and Sonnet keeps a hand on each while I goof for some rather dangerous photographs. One trip and Pow! I'm gone.

A signage tells us: "You are standing near the head of the biggest canyon in the park (4 miles / 6 km) not far from here the canyon narrows into a ravine. Just before that it is little more than a ditch or a gully beside the road. Another few thousands years of periodic rainstorms will turn the ditch into a chasm as wide as the one in front of you."

Eitan: "Wow."

Madeleine: "Mom! Eitan called me 'midget!'"