The benefit of being in an RV is that we can sleep alongside the road, just outside the place that we want to explore, rather than having to commute from home. So we were excited to wake up, and drive straight into Colorado National Monument to beat the potential crowds, with the plan to eat breakfast once we arrived so that we were guaranteed a parking spot. However, it turned out that we turned left instead of right, which meant that we did a long, long loop around Rim Road Drive when our first destination was mere minutes away from where we started – whoops!
Still, how could we be bummed when we just had more time to take in the incredible scenery around us? Rim Rock Drive winds through spectacular scenery and accesses over 40 miles of hiking trails, in varying degrees of difficulty. We definitely wanted to go on a decent hike, but were initially confused as the hikes all had an address of “Grand Junction” on Google Maps that made us think that we were leaving the Monument.
Serpents Trail & Devil's Kitchen
We found what seemed like a suitable hike at the Devil’s Kitchen Trail & Picnic Area, but en route were fortunate to find a parking spot at the top of Serpents Trail, a historical trail built in the 1900s, nicknamed “the crookedest road in the world” because of its 16 switchbacks.
After eating breakfast at this parking spot, we went straight down the trail. A lady who had just hiked up said that she’d encountered some bighorn sheep, so we were excited about the prospect of seeing them, but unfortunately must have missed them as the day progressed. Once we got to the bottom of the trail (which was 2.8 kms or 1.75 miles) one way, we figured that we could still keep walking before heading back up, so we tacked on Devil’s Kitchen Trail, which is 1.2 kms one way (0.75 miles). This sounds easy enough, but it was more rugged and steeper to get up to the Devil’s Kitchen, and the trail wasn’t as clearly marked with rock cairns, which meant that we went off the trail slightly, and had to backtrack along some very tight ledges to get back to the path.
However, it was well worth it–once we turned the corner on the tight ledge, we were greeted by an incredible rock grotto that is the Devil’s Kitchen. There’s a “room” (I guess this is like the “kitchen”) in the middle with the towering cluster of sandstone boulders around it. It was definitely majestic to be here without anyone else, and look up from the kitchen and see these rocks reaching up to the sky. This was definitely well worth the hike!
We returned back up to Serpents Trail as the day started to get warmer, and after lunch back in the RV continued to drive along the Rim Road Drive, which can feel intimidating in areas because you are really driving on the edge of the road, and there’s not much between you and a sheer drop below, hundreds of feet to the ground! There are several lookout points that we stopped at along the drive, where you can really absorb the landscape and the varied rock shapes that have been created over thousands of years in front of you.
We decided that afternoon to check into a Monument RV Park, an RV park on the outskirts of Colorado National Monument in the town of Fruita. While the RVs are parked close to each other, the facilities were clean and we were able to have a nice, warm shower and use the laundry while there. We also met a retired elderly couple who were originally from the area, but had moved to Arizona for health reasons (it seems Arizona is common to go to for the warm weather and lower altitude). However, after being there for a couple of years they missed Colorado so decided to come back and were living in the RV park for a couple of months before settling back into their home. They had an adorable pup that they’d rescued and adopted, who Sheila got to meet ahead of us settling in for the night.
Route Map
