USA/CO: Colorado National Monument
This national monument should really be a national park – it’s vast, spectacular, with tons of stuff to see. It protects a high elevation plateau above the so-called Monument Canyon of the Colorado River Plateau – with sheer sandstone walls, canyons within canyons, rock spyres, buttes, hoodoos, and massive rock formation. With names Independence Monument, the Kissing Couple, and Coke Ovens – every step is a panorama of high desert beauty and near-Martian-like landscape. The twisting and turning Rim Rock Drive goes along the edge of the plateau with dozen of stops and overlooks that peer over the landscape below.
