The park hosts a wide range of wildlife, including red-tailed hawks, golden eagles, ravens, jays, desert bighorn sheep, and coyotes.

[3] Activities include hiking, horseback riding, road bicycling, and scenic drives; a visitor center on the west side contains a natural history museum and gift shop.

Interactive map of the Colorado National Monument The area was first explored by John Otto, who settled in Grand Junction in the early 20th century.

The delegation returned praising both Otto's work and the scenic beauty of the wilderness area, and the local newspaper began lobbying to make it a National Park.

A bill was introduced and carried by the local Representatives to the U.S. Congress and Senate but a Congressional slowdown in the final months threatened the process.

[7] The park became more well known in the 1980s partly due to its inclusion as a stage of the major international bicycle race, the Coors Classic.

The issue of national park status has arisen time and again, usually during bust cycles brought on by the uranium industry and later oil and gas.

As of June, 2014 Congressman Scott Tipton and Senator Mark Udall have carried the process closer to fruition than any other representatives since the initial effort in 1907.

Burns compared the area to Seward, Alaska, which overcame opposition to create Kenai Fjords National Park.

Burns said Seward locals came to refer to Kenai Fjords National Park as a "permanent pipeline".

Corkscrew Trail, closed for many years but reopened in mid-2006, branches off the Liberty Cap and skirts a small canyon and cliffs that cannot be seen from the valley floor.

The oldest rocks are Early to Middle Proterozoic gneiss and schist, including the Ute Canyon Stock.

Overlying these, and separated by an angular unconformity, are mostly horizontally bedded Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, including the cliff-forming Wingate Sandstone.