The drive between Rifle CO and Colorado National Monument

There were some great views on the drive between Rifle and the Colorado National Monument.

Coming out of the falls area.

Stunning rocks. My pics. don't do it justice.

Rifle Falls State Park

Wow! Wow! Wow! This state park was amazing. There were many cool trails, awesome caves and of course the falls. You could easily walk in the water just below the falls to explore the nooks and crannies. While standing on the path you got wet from the spray which was great for a hot day.

 Our site was great. We had alot of shade, a very private picnic area and the stream ran behind us.

Left side of our site.

Right side of our site.

Sunshine cooling his paws in the creek behind our site.

Creek just below our site.

Blossom about to take a dip in the falls run-off.

The beautiful Rifle Falls.

The highlight was the falls. Paths all around the area took you up and around the falls. You want to explore all the nooks and crannies of the paths because they often lead to views or cool caves.

View from above.

Water that will flow down the falls.

Above the falls, looking out.

Ponds above the falls.

Beautiful trail coming down from top of falls.

Wooded trail down from falls.

Caves.

 There were tons of caves to explore.

More caves (all very cool).

Blossom explores the caves with some trepidation.

And more caves (still really cool).

Looking for cave monsters.

Trail leads to other side of falls.

Many views were available. This one is at the side of the falls.

You could walk right behind the falls.

 There was a bench (covered in mud) behind the falls so if you bought a towel to sit on you could sit there and soak up the mist, view and sounds of the falls.

Sunshine worries about the cave monsters.

View from inside our RV.

 We enjoyed all the greenery surrounding our RV.

Dogs on the Squirrel Trail.

The Squirrel Trail was very neat. It went along a canal from the falls and then through a heavily wooded portion. I recommend you go in the clockwise direction. I went the other way at first and thought I had gotten off track because the trail seemed to meander away from the campground.

Blossom attempts to thwart our leaving by laying on the mat.

When asked to get in just before leaving Blossom at first refused and attempted to walk away. Very unusual for her. You could tell this was her favorite campground. As the mat was being folded up she kept laying on it to try and thwart it's being put away.

A video of the falls.

A video from behind the falls.

Rifle Gap State Park

Due to the heat we left Dinosaur early and drove toward Rifle. On the way I called Rifle Gap to see if they had spaces and they had plenty. When we checked in they assigned us a site on their upper loop which was full hook-up and looked like a commercial RV park. We drove through the other loops and selected our own site which we changed to.

View from our site.

We had a beautiful view of the water and were well spaced from our neighbors. In addition there was a hill behind us that provided early shade that evening. With water and electricity we were very comfortable for the night.

Our site.

The reservoir was very low.

 The dogs enjoyed walking down to the reservoir. At one point a deer came by on the hill behind us.

Path from lake bed back to campground.

Blossom and I relax.

The temperatures were much better in Rifle than they had been at the monument and we could sit outside.

Green River Campground - Dinosaur National Monument

Loved Green River Campground! Would stay there again. Very pretty. Nicely spaced sites. Excellent access to the river. Probably best to not go in July (too hot) but would be lovely at another time of year.

Overhead view of the campground.

We had reservations for a site but found the unreservable ones to be better situated so switched into the following two sites
.

First site.

Site for second night.

Little blue/white spec on the river is husband inner tubing.

There he goes, floating by.

Just a word of caution. On his last run he decided to go further down the river to what appeared to be a sand beach. But his tube got into a whirlpool and stopped moving right by the shore so he hopped out only to find the water was 5 ft deep. Where he got in was a protected area by some rocks and then he had been getting out down river in shallow rock or sand areas so the deep water was a surprise.

We had planned to stay for three nights but it was too hot so we left after the second and headed out to Rifle CO.

Dinosaur National Monument.

We are in Utah!

1st and 2nd stops were the two visitor centers. CO first and then the Utah one.

They have some recommendations on what to do.

I was looking forward to the night sky but the first night we had clouds and the second we had smoke haze.

Pretty rocks surrounded you on the drives.

One of the petroglyphs stops. They have an auto guide for the road that goes by the campground. Well worth getting for $1.

Box canyon hike. Very short, easy and shady.

Rocks on the hike.

More rocks on the hike.

Our RV at Josie's cabin.

Josie's cabin.

More dramatic scenery.

Pretty view.

History of the Quarry Exhibit Hall.

Bones in the Quarry Exhibit Hall.

If you have dogs you can drive up to the Quarry Exhibit Hall instead of taking the shuttle.

A fire in them there hills.

Smoke hazed up the view for our second day.

Pretty view.

Blossom enjoying a trail but she says it is hot.

One of the views on the canyon drive.

Loved these hills.

Blossom says it is still hot.

More pretty views on the canyon drive.

It was really hot so we took turns staying in the RV with the dogs while the other viewed the sites. It stayed about 73 in our back bedroom so the dogs were comfortable. In the heat we cover all the windows and ceiling openings with the metallic bubble foil type insulation. It really helps. We also put up the windshield cover and side window covers while stopped.