The Colorado River did not solve its problems by abandoning its hard-rock course in Unaweep Canyon in favor of a soft-rock course through Ruby and Westwater Canyons—it just postponed them. The river has again cut down into its old nemesis—the hard Proterozoic rock—in Ruby Canyon just within the Colorado border, in Westwater Canyon in Utah, and the Gunnison River has reached the hard rock at its confluence with Dominguez Creek, not far above Whitewater, as shown in figure 34_D_. Thus, once again hard rock is slowing down old man river, and will slow him down for a long time to come. Someday, Westwater and Ruby Canyons will be deep gorges like Unaweep Canyon. Then it is quite possible that another young tributary may sneak around the Uncompahgre arch some miles northwest of these canyons and pirate the river into a new soft-rock course. By this time, the Monument will have changed appearance considerably. Some of the canyons will have come together by eating away the ramparts that separated them—just as the two entrances of Monument Canyon have already done. But as the lower canyons thus eliminate themselves, the headwaters will bite deeper into Piñon Mesa, so perhaps the Monument will simply creep slowly southwestward. However, renewed uplift, more volcanos, changes in climate, or other events could alter the picture. Still, if the geologic clock ran as fast as the ones we use, the picture of the Monument we see today would be on the screen only a small fraction of a split second. But the geologic clock ticks on, slowly but surely, and, someday, the Holocene Epoch in which we live will become just another brief chapter in the long geologic history of the Earth. [Illustration: Petroglyph] How to See the Monument How to see the monument depends in large part on how long you can stay, but it depends also upon the direction you are travelling to or through Grand Junction and Fruita, and on the mode of transportation. Moreover, the Monument has four entrances—two main entrances from Fruita (West Entrance) and Grand Junction (East Entrance), and two subordinate entrances from the Glade Park area to the southwest. Though by no means as well known as our large National Parks, Colorado National Monument is more readily accessible than many. It is on two transcontinental highways (U.S. 6 and 50), is the western terminus of U.S. 24, and is on nearly completed Interstate 70, one of the most scenic transcontinental Interstate Highways. Highway I-70 supersedes many stretches of U.S. 6, 24, and 50, but the latter are still used in parts of the Grand Valley and elsewhere. The Monument also is on the main line of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, which still maintains limited passenger service between Denver and Salt Lake City, but this service may eventually be terminated. Grand Junction’s Walker Field is served by several airlines, and both Grand Junction and Fruita are served by busses.