Although we traveled out to Colorado to spend the entire Thanksgiving week, I didn’t actually take much time off – instead, we planned to do our major exploring (Arches and Black Canyon of the Gunnison) over the weekend and squeeze smaller local adventures around the work hours. Monday was out of the question, as Steve was writing a brief and I was in a virtual mediation all day, and most of Tuesday was spent catching up on emails that piled up during my mediation on Monday. But we did slip out for a Tuesday lunchtime hike at one of Dan and Danielle’s favorite spots – Colorado National Monument. “The Monument,” as Dan and Danielle casually called it, was in Fruita, about twenty minutes from their house – perfect for a quick hit of spectacular scenery.

Dan had in mind a fun hike for us – mostly flat, through desert scrubland and surrounded by stunning mesas, capped off with just the right amount of climbing and scrambling to a fun, tucked-away, rock formation.

As always, Danielle tutored us in the local plant life while we hiked. I loved the juniper!

The views in every direction were absolutely gorgeous! I love the desert – so otherworldly, and completely captivating.

Eventually, the flat and sandy trail hit rock and started to climb. This was a perfect hike to do with the rugrats – just enough variance to keep it interesting, but nothing unsafe or out of their range.

After a few hundred feet of casual climbing, we reached our destination – Devil’s Kitchen!

It was a cool little area, tucked away inside a wall of rock and surrounded by hoodoos. The kids immediately started to climb on everything.

Sadly, I had a work call and we hadn’t really planned well, so I took my call perched on top of a hoodoo while the kids explored and Dan, Danielle and Steve milled around keeping an eye on everyone and talking about grown-up, non-work stuff.

Eventually, I wrapped up my call and joined the rest of the party exploring the cracks and crevices and fissures in the rock. So cool, and nothing like our hiking at home in Virginia!

I turned my camera on the landscape and made it my mission to capture the entire view – all 360 degrees of it. I didn’t want to miss an inch!

Eventually, reluctantly, we had to scramble down out of Devil’s Kitchen and back to reality – but not before stopping at a hanging canyon to take in the jaw-dropping view. That’ll be next week, so check in with me then…

Do you love the desert landscape?