One Day in Colorado National Monument | Rim Rock Drive

Colorado National Monument protects 32 square miles of stunning, rugged canyon-plateau landscape. Here you’ll find a grand naturally carved steep canyon full of dramatic views, towering rock formations and wild terrain.

Colorado National Monument can be experienced from trails and overlooks along the rim. Or from deep down in the depths of the canyon.

If you’ve got one day in Colorado National Monument, following Rim Rock Drive is a great way to see the
scenic landscape from various, new vantage points. This scenic drive follows the length of the canyon offering many stops including viewpoints, overlooks, short hikes, and picnic areas. Longer hikes can also be accessed from the trailheads along the drive.

Follow us on our adventure on Rim Rock Drive in Colorado National Monument!

Rim Rock Drive

There are many stops along Rim Rock Drive! We didn’t check out every single stop but we had a nice mix of short hikes and scenic views. Plus sometimes if you don’t drive much between stops, the views can be pretty similar.

Fruita Canyon View

After driving through the tunnels and climbing up along Rim Rock Drive, one of the first stops is Fruita Canyon View. This is a cool overlook because it shows how far up you’ve just climbed as you look down on civilization in the distance below. From here, you can also see the winding road below and the steep, dramatic sandstone cliff walls. Notice balanced rock, the tall pinnacle boulders by the right canyon wall.

Canyon Rim Trail

Canyon Rim Trail is an easy one mile round trip hike accessed from the Colorado National Monument Visitor Center. If you’re stopped at the visitor center anyways, it’s a great trail to check out.

The walk follows along the cliff edge with beautiful views of Wedding Canyon below. We enjoyed seeing the tall rock formations out in the canyon and also appreciated just how steep the canyon wall was that we were walking near.

Window Rock Trail

If you continue past Canyon Rim Trail you can access Window Rock Trail. Follow Window Rock Trail for about a quarter of a mile to a cool view of the window rock formation. It was hard to photograph from this angle but it was a pretty neat formation. While we were hiking Lower Monument Canyon Loop last week, we got a great view of it from down in the canyon.

We walked back to Canyon Rim Trail and followed that back to the visitor center.

Alcove Nature Trail

Alcove Nature Trail is accessed just across the road from the visitor center. It’s an easy one mile round trip
self guided nature trail with educational stops along the way. The trail ends at a tall, steep alcove.

Otto’s Trail Overlook

Otto’s Trail is a short easy quarter mile walk (half mile roundtrip) to a viewpoint that showcases numerous
monoliths. This is one of the more dramatic vistas with views deep into the canyon.

Coke Ovens Overlook

There’s a short trail to reach the Coke Ovens Overlook. When we first parked here we thought that this was also the location of Coke Ovens Trail (see below). And from the overlook, it appeared as though the trail continued but we quickly realized that it did not.

But before that realization, we stumbled upon a cool tunnel.

Coke Ovens Trail

There are several hikes that can be accessed from the parking area for Coke Ovens Trail. We just stuck with the short half mile walk to an overlook that takes you out into the canyon a bit for a pretty cool vantage point. The trail to the overlook was very scenic as well.

Upper Ute Canyon Overlook

Up until the point, the previous stops we’ve mentioned have all looked out into the Monument Canyon portion of Colorado National Monument. So this overlook was a refreshing change, looking into Ute Canyon. Although this view is a bit less dramatic, there was a very interesting information sign here as well as a cool “mummy” shaped rock formation across the canyon.

Fallen Rock Overlook

A short walk is required to reach the Fallen Rock Overlook. To be honest, we found this stop to be a bit underwhelming though there is indeed a fallen rock. Just not quite to the scale that we were expecting. Luckily, any glimpse at the canyons here is worth a stop. After this overlook the road climbs to the highest point on Rim Rock Drive at 6,640 feet.

Devil’s Kitchen Trail

Devil’s Kitchen Trail accesses several hiking trails via the Devil’s Kitchen Trail system. This time, we stuck with hiking Devil’s Kitchen Trail. The trail is a short 0.75 mile hike (one way) that offers a refreshing opportunity to experience the gorgeous red rock canyon by wandering amongst the boulders and vegetation. This hike leads to really cool large boulders that create a room of sorts and allows for some beautiful scenery.

Hike it Later – Pin it Now

For some reason, it is very easy to get off the main trail here. We had to do some backtracking to find the “room” and ran into others who also had trouble finding it.

Luckily the entire area is full of awesome boulders in a spectacular setting so there was no rush in getting to the “destination”.

But once we found it, it was pretty cool to see as well. This is the area of Colorado National Monument that I would have enjoyed spending more time at to explore and climb around.

Thanks for Reading!

We hope this guide for one day in Colorado National Monument was helpful with planning and learning what to expect! We are always on the move and always looking for new places to see and explore. If you’d like to read about some of our other adventures we’ve encountered on the road check out the articles below:

• Hiking Humphrey’s Peak via Inner Basin Trail
• Off the Beaten Path Adventure in Joshua Tree National Park
• Backpacking Missouri and Fancy Pass Loop
• Hiking to Sierra Buttes Lookout Tower

While we’re on the move, we’re also working on creating a fresh lineup of our hand painted longboards! If you’d like to see what we’ve been working on, head over to our Lost Coast Longboarding Shop.

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