The Geologic Story of Colorado National Monument: Revised EditionLohman, Stanley William
Science
The Geologic Story of Colorado National Monument: Revised Edition
Lohman, Stanley William
Colorado National Monument (Colo.); Geology -- Colorado -- Colorado National Monument
From the intersection 1½ miles east of the Glade Park Store and Post
Office, let us turn southeast on the recently improved and gravelled
Little Park Road around the head of No Thoroughfare Canyon, which was
added to the Monument in 1978 (fig. 3). From the intersection it is
about 14 miles to Grand Junction by this route. In half a mile we reach
the new boundary of the Monument at a minor drainage divide, and as we
start down a steep hill beyond we may park on the right and look
southeastward across No Thoroughfare Canyon along the Glade Park fault
(fig. 58) which has produced the fishtail shape of the head of the
canyon, as shown in figures 8 and 59. A different view of the fault and
canyon head is shown by the stereoscopic pair of aerial photographs in
figure 59.
The Little Park Road closely follows the new Monument boundary around
the south end of No Thoroughfare Canyon, either on the Kayenta Formation
or Entrada Sandstone, and affords good views into the canyon from
several places. East of the southeast arm of the canyon, the road leaves
the boundary and goes northeastward about 4 miles to the end of the
improved part of the road, but the unimproved part is good, and the
lower 5 miles is paved. On my geologic maps[41] of the area, I called
this road by its older name—the Jacobs Ladder Road.
LADDER AND ROUGH CANYONS
[Mile-marker 39]
About a quarter of a mile from the end of the improved stretch, one may
turn right on two tire tracks, travel about a quarter of a mile farther,
and park near the junction of Rough and Ladder Canyons, where
interesting geology is reachable by short walks up Ladder Canyon or down
Rough Canyon. About a mile up Ladder Canyon is an interesting abandoned
mica mine.[42]
[Illustration: GLADE PARK FAULT VIEWED FROM THE GROUND, crossing
head of No Thoroughfare Canyon. Looking southeast from Little Park
Road just southeast of new Monument boundary. Fault passes just to
right of white cliff of Wingate Sandstone near bottom of photograph
through notch in east wall of canyon. Note that surface to right
(south) of fault has dropped about 50 feet below left side. Grand
Mesa forms skyline. (Fig. 58)]
From the left side of the road, about 9 miles northeast of our starting
point, we see the view shown in figure 60. About 2 miles farther north,
Little Park Road is paved through a suburban housing development all the
way to The Redlands; there, we may turn right, cross the Gunnison River,
and reach U.S. Highway 50; or we may turn left through Rosevale and
reach Colorado Highway 340.
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