Grand Junction, CO - STR-2021-14

Friday, 2 July

As the golf course managers left last night, they closed the gates, but did not lock. Sprinty and his humans enjoyed a very quiet night, albeit a warmer one than the last week or so.

Despite Kris' excitement for the main activity of the day, we could not be in a rush as the store in Grand Junction did not open until 10:00AM. After our typical routine, we headed north. Our first stop was the REI store in the hopes they might have some hiking shoes for Kris. While they did not have the brand/model in her size that she initially sought, a comparable pair was available. And there was a return pair which was discounted significantly. Darrell also found a pair for him in the returns, so we both got new (to us) hiking shoes.

By now it was almost 10AM and time to head for Best Buy for Kris to pick up her new iPad Pro. We ordered it on line earlier this week for pickup in Grand Junction. Some order verification was required as we had a Florida billing address, a Georgia address for our last Best Buy online order, and placed this order for pickup in Colorado. It all worked out.

We then headed for a nearby Barnes and Noble for their wifi to set up the new iPad. And for Kris to pay up for golf yesterday at their cafe. Darrell worked to set up the iPad while Kris shopped for books. Darrell took enough time with the iPad that Kris felt she needed to show some appreciation to Barnes and Noble and buy a book. The setup took so long that she wound up buying seven books before Darrell said enough was enough and we could finish the setup later.

With the temperatures rising (and the rising stack of books), we postponed any more iPad setup and headed for Colorado National Monument. Based on the web site, we thought it might be good to start at the visitor center before driving the Rim Rock Drive. The National Park Service web site said the visitor center had two videos, and we usually like to start with the videos when visiting the parks. So we entered the west (Fruita) Entrance.

Upon entering the National Monument, we saw the sign indicating the tunnels had a height limit on the right side of 10 feet 6 inches. Good thing Sprinty is only 9 feet 10 inches. The road started a steep climb, with lots of tight turn switchbacks and two tunnels.

Our first turnout was at the Fruita Canyon View.

The visitor center was open, but the auditorium was closed - so no video. This seems to be a recurring policy at National Park sites - reduced visitor center amenities (Rocky Mountain NP visitor center was closed - the Rangers worked a table located outside), no videos or significantly reduced seating if there is a video, and sometimes capacity limits (Alpine Visitor Center, Rocky Mountain NP).  Fortunately, the exhibit room was open.

We hiked the short Canyon Rim Trail and Window Rock Trail.

Our next stop was Otto's Trail, named for John Otto who campaigned tirelessly for it to be set aside as a National Park. In 1911 his dream came true, Colorado National Monument was established. Otto was named the park's caretaker, a job he gladly did until 1927 for just one dollar a month.

By now, the temperatures were over 90 degrees, and the sun made it seem even hotter. We drove the rest of the Rim Rock Drive to the East (Grand Junction) entrance.

We then drove to Fruita to see the neighborhood that Tom and Heidi had been considering to build a house. Then we headed east on I-70 to Island Acres section of the James M Robb-Colorado River State Park near Palisades, CO for our campsite.

Just last Tuesday night, Darrell was still looking for a campsite for 4th of July weekend Friday and Saturday nights. As he checked yet again for the James M Robb-Colorado River State Park, he found one campsite available for Friday and Saturday nights. As that campsite had not been there only an hour before, it must have been a cancellation. Quick like a bunny, he snagged the site. Wah hoo!!!!!

Sprinty scored a nice full-hookup, pull-through site right along the Colorado River. While the state park is also right along I-70, having Sprinty closed up running the air conditioning made the road noise imperceptible.

Saturday, 3 July

A slow start this morning, so we got to enjoy the sun slowly filling in the canyon. Our first activity was a bike ride, the Colorado Riverfront Trail (https://www.traillink.com/trail/colorado-riverfront-trail/). Picked for the morning activity as it was going to be another hot day. We parked at Corn Lake park which was approximately in the middle of the trail section. The parking area is another unit of the James M Robb-Colorado River State Park, so we enjoyed having purchased the annual Colorado parks pass yesterday.

The Ranger saw us preparing to ride and stopped to tell us about the trail. We chose to ride to the east end first. The trail follows along the Colorado River, and is mostly nice concrete paved trail. The Colorado Riverfront Trail is still in development - eventually it will run from Palisades to Fruita.

Overall, we rode a little over 13 miles. As we were riding, Darrell noticed that his bike seemed to handle differently when making turns. The bike was fine going straight. At the end of the ride, he checked the tire pressures and found that the front tire was low on air - 7.5psi instead of 20 psi. Further investigation found that his front tire had a sliver of a thorn (cactus needle) about 3/16" long - just enough to have a slow leak. So after 2,960 miles on his bike (and 3,100 miles on Kris' bike), we had to fix our first flat. For this repair, we just replaced the tube, and expect to patch the old tube later.

After the ride, we did a couple of chores, then headed for Mesa Lakes to hike the Mesa Lakes Trail. AllTrails described the trail as a 2.8-mile moderately trafficked loop near Mesa Lakes. It also indicated that it had a 396 foot elevation gain for the hike.

When we arrived, most of the parking places were filled - we wound up having to park a ways from the trailhead. Probably to be expected on a Saturday afternoon of 4th of July weekend. The hike was very nice, passing four lakes. The turnaround point was at Lost Lake, a small, very clear lake at an elevation of around 10,000 feet. With the extra distance we had to hike from the parking area to the trailhead, we hiked a total of 3.9 miles, enjoying the much cooler temperatures being at 10,000 feet elevation again.

We liked the cooler temperatures so much we decided to just hang out in the parking area and make dinner as it was probably 20 degrees cooler than back at the campsite. Another advantage to bringing your house along for the day.

After dinner, we enjoyed the downhill drive (mostly coasting - achieved 65mpg for 24 miles) back to Island Acres - James M Robb-Colorado River State Park Campground. We also monitored the temperature change - and watched the temperature rise by 18 degrees from Mesa Lakes to I-70 near Palisades.

Sunday, 4 July

Today was a golf day enroute to Ridgway, CO. We selected Black Canyon Golf Course, the municipal golf course in Montrose, CO. Opened in 1959, Black Canyon Golf Course is the oldest course in Montrose. The par 34 front 9 is a "park style'' tree-lined course designed by Joe Francese. The back 9 is a "links-style", par 36 course featuring deeper bunkers and longer fairways designed by Byron Coker.

We arrived a little early as our stops enroute did not take as long as we thought. While we had a 10am tee time, we got to go off at 9:40.

The course was rather tight, requiring good shots to stay in the fairway. Kris had an easier time of that than Darrell and made 12 of 14 fairways. We both made good shots, and Kris was up by a shot at the turn. Darrell tied it up on the 12th hole, and we reminded tied until the 18th hole. Darrell managed to make a birdie on the final hole, while Kris made bogey. Darrell had honors on the day. Sort of. As it was a Par 70 for Darrell and a Par 72 for Kris, and the score difference was two strokes, perhaps technically they tied.

Montrose, CO is at a crossroads in this part of Colorado, so it had more retail options than many of the towns we have visited recently, including a Target, and Starbucks. Darrell was quite happy to make a Starbucks stop to pay up for the first time in several outings.

We continued south about 18 miles to the Pa—Co-Chu-Puk campground at Ridgway State Park, Ridgway, CO. Tom and Heidi are staying at Ridgway State Park this week, and we were able to cobble together five nights in four different sites to explore the Ridgway/Ourey/Silverton/Telluride areas.