Colorado National Monument is not what most people think of when they think of Colorado. Instead of 14,000 foot, snow capped mountains, Colorado National Monument has towering monoliths and red rock canyons. It is part of the greater Colorado Plateau and the NPS web site describes it as  ”semi-desert land of pinyon pines and junipers, ravens and jays, desert bighorns and coyotes”. Forget about “semi-desert”, this week it has been a full-blown desert with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees F and smoke from the Pine Ridge fire very obvious against the mesa on the horizon.

However, this morning, the sunrise temperature of 76 degrees F and a light breeze made for a very pleasant photo shoot. The cooler temps made getting up at 4:45 AM bearable. I had the Coke Ovens overlook all to myself this morning and made this landscape with the Canon 5D Mark II and EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS USM @ 28mm 1/20s f/8.0 -1, ISO 100.

Thanks for looking. Have a safe and wonderful Independence Day holiday.

Colorado National Monument – Coke Ovens

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