The Canyon's Echo

An 8.62 mile trail full of red rocks and canyon views

Jan 24, 2026

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Back in April 2023, the Colorado National Monument played a trick on Adam and me. As I was framing a shot from the Ute Canyon overlook, we heard clear, distinct voices around us, yet we were alone. We soon realized the voices were drifting up from the canyon floor, hundreds of feet below. At that time, I wasn’t doing much hiking, so the interior of the canyon felt like a different, beautiful, inaccessible world.

In November 2025, after driving out of the fog, we ended up at the Liberty Cap trailhead in the Colorado National Monument. I’d found the route on AllTrails, promising a long, steady walk into Monument Canyon without the ridiculous elevation. I figured I’d be solo for this hike, but our travel partners, Jen and Eric, decided to tag along. Despite their ties to Grand Junction, they had never set foot on this trail.

**Mount Garfield** (left), the high point of the Book Cliffs that overlooks the town of Palisade, roughly 17 miles from our viewpoint. Way in the back, on the right, you can see a mesa peeking out. That would be **Grand Mesa**.

We started the first few miles of the trail following the surface of a juniper-covered plateau while slowly going down in elevation. I noticed some of the trees had bluish juniper berries, so I picked one off and squished it between my fingers. I thought the smell was heavenly, so fresh and crisp. It gave me a flashback to the late 90s and my favorite Bath and Body Works scent, Juniper Breeze.

Otto’s Tub is somewhere on that canyon rim (in the middle) with the Book Cliffs displayed in the background.

If we had been here on a Saturday in April, the canyon would have been humming with the background noise of high-season crowds. But on a Tuesday in November, the silence was expansive and steady because there was no one else on the trail. The only sounds heard were some birds and our own voices, with the occasional breeze blowing through the junipers. Though we were on the Liberty Cap trail, we would eventually veer off onto another trail to hike towards Otto’s Tub (or Bathtub), a viewpoint on top of the east rim of Monument Canyon made up of Entrada sandstone.

The trail led us onto the slickrock where, to our left and right, the earth fell away. We followed a narrow, exposed stone ridge. Though the drop-off felt close, you could dip down into a sandstone bowl to bypass the edge.

We paused there to take in the sheer scale of Monument Canyon, and to shed some of our outer layers. Though it was November and the air was cool, the sun was way too warm. I wouldn’t say that I was dripping sweat, but I was pretty close, surprising considering we were hiking downhill.

We weren’t sure, at first, if this was Otto’s Tub. Eric demonstrated why it COULD be if needed.

This was also the moment where the quiet ended. Jen, ever the free spirit, suggested we shout to “calm our vagus nerves.” Before I could even process the thought, she let out a feral, guttural scream that hit the opposite canyon walls. We stood in awe as we heard her voice echo, echo, echo, echo, bouncing off the red rock before finally fading into the depths.

Two years ago, I was the one listening to other hikers from above, but this time, we were the ones filling the canyon with voices.