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- The Colorado National Monument is on the northeast of the vast Colorado Plateau.
- Reclusive canyon dweller John Otto mounted a one-man campaign to have his “backyard" declared a national park. That designation came in 1911, with Otto as its first superintendent.
- The Monument boasts canyons as deep as 500 feet and rock monoliths as tall as 450 feet.
- Construction of Rim Rock Drive began in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and was completed in the ‘50s.
- Of the three tunnels along the 23-mile-long Rim Rock Drive, the longest is 530 feet long.
- Rim Rock Drive is also a popular and challenging road-biking route.
- Serpent’s Trail, the original dirt road into the Monument and now its most popular hiking trail, makes 54 switchbacks in just 2 ½ miles.
- The Monument boasts 14 hiking trails.
- Visitors often see mule deer and may also spot coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, desert bighorns and much smaller mammals such as foxes, desert cottontails, squirrels, and other rodents.
- The Monument records an annual average of less than 12 inches of rain.
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