Colorado National Monument has been on our radar since the first time we passed through Grand Junction, Colorado a few years back.

Melanie and I decided to use her days off to travel from Jensen, Utah to Grand Junction and use part of our time there to visit the monument. 

We drove into the monument using the Fruita, Colorado entrance, driving up Rim Rock Drive onto the plateau at the Saddlehorn Visitor Center.  We used the Saddlehorn Picnic Area parking lot as a staging area to park the van and get our bikes out for a ride. 

We rode as far as the East Blackridge Trailhead and back.

Loading the bikes, we then drove the remainder of the Rim Rock Drive and out the East Entrance. Along the way we saw the ewe above.

Melanie and I volunteered to be Interpretive Rangers at San Juan Island National Historical Park during the summer season two years ago.  Recently, one of our bosses, Ranger Jeff Hodge, paid us a surprise visit to Dinosaur National Monument where Melanie is currently a seasonal Interpretive Ranger and hung out with us for a few days.  Always great to see Jeff.

He and I made the drive out Island Park Road taking in Island Park, Rainbow Park Campground, Ruple Ranch, and the McKee Springs Petroglyphs. Great day in the monument.

Yesterday, Melanie and I traveled a short ways outside of Vernal, Utah to the McConkie Ranch, site of Fremont Petroglyphs of the Northern Uinta Basin.

There are two trails located here.  Yesterday we walked and viewed the petroglyphs and pictographs along the Upper Main Panel Trail.  The 3 Kings Trail will have to wait for another day's visit. The 2 trails are both easily done in one visit, but we opted for lunch in the van and then decided the heat was prohibitive of hiking the 3 Kings Trail. 

We took a "field trip" to mainly check out a portion of the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area for places to escape the summer heat we know is about to pay a visit here in Jensen, Utah at Dinosaur National Monument. (DINO).

We're residing in DINO at about 5,000 feet above sea level. We went in search of camp spots that are located at around 8,000 feet above sea level. And we found a few that will definitely work for us.  We expect when the temperature reaches 95 degrees fahrenheit in DINO, it should be in the 60's and 70's (cooler at night) in the mountains.

A friend here in DINO told us of milk shakes to be found in Manila, Utah so we traveled there first and had lunch and a milk shake, of course. Browning's has what I'd call a solid lunch menu, Melanie had the Crispy Chicken Sandwich with fries, I had the Pastrami Burger with cheese and fries and a strawberry milk shake.

We stopped in a Red Canyon Visitor Center and walked a small portion of the rim trail there.  We also checked out the 3 campgrounds, Red Canyon, Canyon Rim and Greens Lake, in that area.  These campgrounds need some care to bring them back up to speed, but they'd work in a pinch.