Explore Fruita: Gateway to Colorado’s Premier Outdoor Adventures
Living in Fruita, Colorado provides access to some of the best outdoor sporting areas in the country. Not only are we only 15 minutes away from the Colorado National Monument, famous for their trails and biking but several top national parks are only a few hours away. We wanted to highlight a few of these parks and monuments that are just a little further away but still close enough to enjoy for a day trip.
Arches National Park
Covering close to 77,000 acres in eastern Utah, Arches National Park is known for its sandstone formations that cover the entirety of the park. These formations provide an incredible place for Backpackers, rock climbers and hikers, not to mention photographers. This park showcases the world’s densest concentration of natural arches in the world, with over 2,000 to see, with some of the most popular being Landscape Arch, Delicate Arch and Double Arch. This incredible park is only an hour and a half away from our community.
The Black Canyon National Park
Black Canyon National Park covers 30,750 acres in western Colorado. Known for some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rock formations, and craggiest spires in North America. The Black Canyon offers incredible views from their scenic drives and hikes, gold medal fishing and is a mountain climbers wonderland. Visitors can also enjoy South Rim Campground, which has impressive views of the 2,250-foot Painted Wall, the highest cliff in Colorado (it’s 1,000-feet taller than the Empire State Building!). Enjoy all this park has to offer with it being only an hour and a half away from our community.
The Canyon Lands National Park
Utah has a number of excellent national parks, with Canyon Lands being the largest, covering 337,598 acres. It boasts a wilderness of countless canyons and fantastically formed buttes carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries. While this is where the park gets its name from it also boasts a large amount of striated spires, arches and buttes that are no less impressive. Must-dos for visitors include driving around the rim of the vast mesa at Island in the Sky, stopping to look through Mesa Arch along the way, and hiking among hundreds of sandstone spires in The Needles district. Visitors are also able to float and canoe down the rivers, seeing the canyons from a new perspective while keeping cool in the summer months. This park is only just an hour and 45 minutes away from our community.
Dinosaur National Monument
Spanning both Utah and Colorado Dinosaur National Monument covers 210,844 acres, it contains over 800 paleontological sites and has fossils of dinosaurs including Allosaurus, Deinonychus, Abydosaurus, and various sauropods. It is also home to 1,000-year-old petroglyphs and pictographs in several areas of the monument, left by early Indigenous people. Visitors are able to backpack and hike through various trails leading to fossils and etches. the park offers a number of fishing and scenic drives opportunities for visitors to enjoy. This park is only an hour and 40 minutes from our community.
Bonus: Rifle Falls State Parks
While not a national park or monument, it is a great place to explore, this 48 acre park with the main attractions being a triple 70-foot waterfall flowing over a travertine dam on East Rifle Creek. Limestone cliffs near the falls have a few small caves that can be explored and are incredible in the winter when ice covers them. It is a short hike around the park with several opportunities to view wildlife. This park is just a short of an hour and a half away from our community.
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