National monuments that we have visited.
We visited Waco Mammoth National Monument in Waco, Texas.
This park was established fairly recently, in 2015, and is quite small. It consists of just a visitor center and a shelter over a dig site with several mammoth fossils.
The visitor center and outdoor gift store:
Info sign:
Dig shelter:
Inside the shelter, a ranger giving a talk:
Fossils:
While in Las Cruces, we visited the nearby White Sands National Park.
This park features the world’s largest gypsum dunefield. Until December 2019 it was a National Monument, and many of the signs have yet to be updated:
White Sands visitor center:
In addition to the park service visitor center shop, there is a commercial gift shop onsite:
We do enjoy the cactus candy:
They have disc-shaped sand sleds for sale (and can buy back); we thought about it, but decided not to bother:
Jenn does enjoy her pressed pennies:
A flowering shrub out front was covered in butterflies, moths, and bees:
The entrance station:
The road between sand dunes:
About halfway the pavement ends, so one is driving on compressed sand:
They have several picnic areas, with lots of shelters:
We parked at one, for a picnic lunch; the shelter didn’t do much to block the strong wind, though:
A selfie:
We climbed the dune behind the shelter:
Shiny gypsum sand; a nice property of it is that it doesn’t get hot:
Sand dunes in all directions:
Other people sledding by the picnic area:
Shadows:
We then went to a boardwalk in an area with more foliage:
An interesting park, somewhat different than the sand dunes of Great Sand Dunes National Park, but fascinating in its own way.
We did a couple of hikes in Newberry National Volcanic Monument.
The visitor center:
Relief map:
A short one-mile hike through the lava field behind the visitor center, “Trail of the Molten Land”:
A picnic lunch:
Sign:
Another short hike down to Paulina Falls:
Paulina lake:
Paulina visitor center:
Relief map:
Sign:
We visited John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon. It consists of three units; we visited the Sheep Rock Unit and the Painted Hills Unit:
Viewpoint:
Picture Gorge:
Sign:
Picture Gorge:
Peak:
Who was John Day? Just a naked guy who never went there:
Visitor center:
A peek into a lab:
James Cant Ranch. Maybe he should have given up, then:
Picnic lunch:
On the way to the Painted Hills Unit:
Painted hills:
We did a day trip drive along the Utah Alpine Loop scenic drive, to the Timpanogos Cave National Monument visitor center, through the outskirts of Salt Lake City, and to Bridal Veil Falls.
Here’s an embedded map of the route, as an experiment (alternative link):
Alpine Loop scenic drive:
We stopped at the Timpanogos Cave National Monument visitor center, since it was on the way. We didn’t go to the actual cave, since (a) it requires reservations, (b) it requires a fairly long hike to reach it, and (c) it requires having never been in a cave before:
We stopped at The Holy Grill for lunch, a BBQ restaurant:
And a stop at Eddie Bauer to return some clothing:
Mountains:
While staying in Vernal, Utah, we visited Dinosaur National Monument, which spans Utah and Colorado, and has two visitor centers.
We visited both, starting with the the Utah side:
The visitor center:
Relief map:
Up the hill is a separate building with the dinosaur fossils. One can’t drive up there, instead taking a free shuttle:
The quarry visitor center:
The building encloses a wall of dinosaur bone fossils:
Some fossils one can touch:
Then we headed into Colorado:
Canyon Visitor Center:
We had a picnic lunch:
The park has a weird border, with a long road that is part of the park:
(And yes, I was amused by the name of the picnic area.)
This part of the park is mostly about scenic rocks:
We visited Colorado National Monument, in — you guessed it — Colorado, west of Grand Junction.
We started by having a picnic lunch in a nice shelter:
Then continued along the twisty roads, looking at the interesting rocks:
The first of three tunnels:
We stopped at several viewpoints:
Morons sitting on rocks off the trail:
An open-ended canyon:
Big horn sheep; we were excited to see her, as she was the first big horn sheep we’ve managed to get a picture of in the wild (we’ve seen them in a zoo in Palm Springs, and on the side of the road in Lake Mead, but not so close):
Viewpoint:
Blooming prickly pear cacti:
Visitor center:
Relief map:
The Colorado plateau; been to all of those places:
Views:
The other two tunnels:
Balancing rock:
We visited Aztec Ruins National Monument in Aztec, New Mexico.
Pueblo people describe this site as part of their migration journey. Today you can follow their ancient passageways to a distant time. Explore a 900-year old ancestral Pueblo Great House of over 400 masonry rooms. Look up and see original timbers holding up the roof. Search for the fingerprints of ancient workers in the mortar. Listen for an echo of ritual drums in the reconstructed Great Kiva.
(Quoting from the NPS website.)
A very nice picnic area:
Where we enjoyed a picnic lunch:
The visitor center:
Flowering Prickly Pear cactus:
Exploring the ruins, with the help of an audio guide:
A reconstructed great kiva:
The reconstructed kiva in the background, and ruins of a smaller one in the foreground:
Unlike many sites, one can go into this:
Demonstrating how low the doorways are:
Into fairly intact rooms:
Original ceilings:
On guard:
Chatting with a volunteer:
An impressive place, fascinating to explore.
Hovenweep National Monument has multiple units in Utah and Colorado. We visited the main one, site of Hovenweep Castle and several other ruins:
A sign with a map of the various units:
We hiked along a canyon-edge path, with a view of several structures on both sides of the canyon:
Hovenweep Castle:
We drove our truck in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, along Burr Trail Road to the Singing Canyon, a delightful little slot canyon that is easy to access from the road (most require a several mile hike to reach). This is a timelapse of driving to and from there, with lots of interesting rocks on the way. Plus a couple of cows.