It was a pretty warm evening in the tent last night. With extremely hot temperatures forecast for today, we opted to wake up early for the day's hike of the Monument/Wedding Canyons Loop. We arrived at the trailhead just as the sun was rising.
The hike began with us following the monument boundary fence to Monument Canyon where we began our ascent to Independence Monument.
It was pretty steady climb during this first section of the hike. Fortunately, it never got too steep, or too hot. Soon enough, we caught our first view of our objective for the hike: Independence Monument.
We took a few breaks along the way.
and continued the steady climb.
As the sun rose, the sunlight turned the rock of the canyon walls a glowing orange color.
About halfway up the canyon to Independence Monument, I turned a corner to see two bighorn sheep with 30 feet of me! It was a ram and a female.
We observed the sheep for a bit, and then eventually started the rest of the climb up the canyon. Views got increasingly impressive.
Soon enough, we found ourselves at Independence Monument. We posed for some photos there and took a break to eat a snack and drink some water.
The views at the monument were awesome!
After our break we started our descent on the Wedding Canyon Primitive Trail. Despite being labeled as "primitive", I didn't find the going to be too rough.
Partway down, we got buzzed by a hummingbird. Noelle figured she must be protecting a nest, did a little investigating and found it!
It was my first time seeing a hummingbird on her nest.
Once the trail left the canyon, we had a pretty long and hot traverse along the monument boundary back to the trailhead. There was still some interesting scenery, but not as impressive as what we saw in the canyons.
Once we returned to the car, we drove back to the campground to pack up our tent. With temperatures of 107 degrees forecast, we decided it made sense to spend the afternoon at the public swimming pool in Grand Junction. After a delicious lunch and beer at Trail Life Brewing, we headed to the Linoln-Moyer Pool to cool off.
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