Colorado National Monument. Looking northeast from Old Serpents Trail. Colorado. circa 1950.

Colorado National Monument, Colorado. Looking northeast from Old Serpents Trail, before 1950, when the trail was still used by cars and trucks. One of John Otto's old foot trails joins the old road at the lower middle. A lens of sandstone about 50 feet thick in the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation begins just around the corner near the base of the high bluff across No Thoroughfare Canyon and is seen extending as far to the left as the normally dry wash that drains the canyon. When water flows down the wash after thunderstorms or from melting snow, the sandstone lens takes in water (recharge) which moves slowly down the dip of the lens to the northeast and supplies several artesian wells. In turn, the light band of the Entrada [...]