I visited Colorado National Monument (just outside of Grand Junction) for just one afternoon when I was visiting Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. There isn't a lot on this page since I wasn't there for long, but I got a few good pictures and was able to explore a little of the monument.
To get to Colorado National Monument, I took the Crawford locals' advice and drove over Grand Mesa. This is not the most the most direct route, but is an amazing drive. The road winds way up to the broad, flat top of the mesa, where everything was still snow-covered:
Devil's Kitchen
Almost everything in these western parks has "Devil" in its name. I suppose that's what people see in these huge, otherworldly rocky formations. I took a short walk (probably about a mile roundtrip) to visit this neat place, the Devil's Kitchen:
The people inside show the scale, and it is an interesting place to explore.
Upper Monument Canyon Trail
The longer (but still not very long) hike I tried was the Upper Monument Canyon Trail. Rim Rock Drive, the road through the park, is a phenomenal scenic road that stays on top of the canyons. This trail starts from Rim Rock Drive. The trail descends quite a long way from the rim to the monument's floor. Here's a view on the way down:
Getting closer to the bottom, there's a great view of the formations called the Coke Ovens:
The trail meanders along the canyon floor past towering, monolithic rock formations. One highlight (which I somehow didn't get a photo of) is the Kissing Couple. On the way out, it didn't look like much, but the return trip brought me the angle to see that it does indeed look like its namesake. The canyon features lots of old canyon walls which have been partially eroded away.
I reached Independence Monument (on the right of the photo above) and turned around. Before I did, I got to watch a family of mountain goats at its base:
The trip from Rim Rock Drive to Independence Monument and back is about 7 miles. The trail continues past Independence a few more miles, but after driving all the way from Crawford and over Grand Mesa, I had no more time. The trail on the floor of the canyon is wonderful, mostly flat, easy to follow. The only difficult part is hiking back up the long ascent to Rim Rock Drive. I'd love to go back and see the whole trail.