Grand View Spire is a 5,821-foot-elevation (1,774-meter) sandstone pillar located in Colorado National Monument, in

Mesa County Mesa County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 155,703. The county seat is Grand Junction. The county was named for the many large mesas in the area, including Grand Mesa. Mesa Co ...

of western Colorado, United States. This 400-foot tower is situated on the west side of Monument Canyon, one mile southeast of the monument's visitor center, and west of the community of Grand Junction. It is also 0.32 mile immediately south of Independence Monument, and 0.27 mile northwest of another climbing destination, Kissing Couple. Its unofficial name relates to its position at the tip of Grand View Overlook, one of several scenic viewpoints along

Rim Rock Drive Rim Rock Drive is a scenic road in Colorado National Monument. The drive follows the upper rim of a series of canyons, extending from the vicinity of Fruita, Colorado, in the west to near Grand Junction, Colorado, in the east, connecting points o ...

Geology

The spire is composed primarily of cliff-forming Wingate Sandstone, which consists of wind-borne, cross-bedded

quartzose Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one ...

sandstones deposited as ancient sand dunes approximately 200 million years ago in the Late Triassic. The caprock at the summit consists of

fluvial In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...

sandstones of the resistant Kayenta Formation. The slope around the base of Grand View Spire is

Chinle Formation The Chinle Formation is an Upper Triassic continental geological formation of fluvial, lacustrine, and palustrine to eolian deposits spread across the U.S. states of Nevada, Utah, northern Arizona, western New Mexico, and western Colorado. In Ne ...

. The floor of the canyon is

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

basement rock In geology, basement and crystalline basement are crystalline rocks lying above the mantle and beneath all other rocks and sediments. They are sometimes exposed at the surface, but often they are buried under miles of rock and sediment. The baseme ...

consisting of gneiss, schist, and granites. Precipitation runoff from this geographical feature drains to the Colorado River, approximately three miles to the northeast.

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Grand View Spire is located in a semi-arid climate zone. Summers are hot and dry, while winters are cold with some snow. Temperatures reach on 5.3 days, on 57 days, and remain at or below freezing on 13 days annually. The months April through October offer the most favorable weather to visit.

Climbing

Established rock climbing routes on Grand View Spire: * ''Southwest Defile Route'' – – 3 pitches – First ascent 1961 by John Auld, John Kuglin, Gary Ziegler * ''Relics'' – class 5.10 – 5 pitches – FA November 13, 1991, by Mike Baker, Michael Kennedy, Bob WadeCameron Burns, ''Selected Climbs in the Desert Southwest: Colorado and Utah'', 1999, Mountaineers Books, , page 32.

Gallery

File:Scenery at Colorado National Monument, a preserve of vast plateaus, canyons, and towering monoliths in Mesa County, Colorado, near Grand Junction LCCN2015633032.tif, Grand View Spire in foreground as seen from Grand View Overlook.
("The Island" in the distance.) File:Colorado National Monument - Grand View Spire.jpg, Grand View Spire centered, with Independence Monument to right File:Egypt Rock, Kissing Couple, Grand View Spire.jpg, Egypt Rock (left), Kissing Couple (center), Grand View Spire (right)
as seen from Monument Canyon File:Grand View overlook, Colorado National Monument.jpg, Grand View overlook.
L to R: Independence Monument, The Island, Grand View Spire, Kissing Couple. File:CONM Independence monument 1.jpg, Grand View Spire in foreground as seen from Grand View Overlook File:Grand View Spire, Colorado.jpg

References

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External links