FROM FRUITA TO FRUITA...

Colorado National Monument

It only takes a couple of hours to drive from the Fruita Campground in Capital Reef National Park to Fruita, Colorado.  We book a few nights at the Monument RV Resort, just a few miles down the road from the Colorado National Monument and down the street from the Dinosaur Museum and across the street from the James M Robb – Colorado River State Park.  The Campground is clean, the staff friendly, WIFI is present but not robust and spaces are close together.

After grabbing a forgettable dinner at the Chinese restaurant down the street we stop by the State park for the 411 on camping there.  Walk-ins can get available spaces for up to 3 days.  Everything else is booked on-line through Reserve America three days in advance or more. There is also a day use fee of $7 per night, or an annual park pass for $70.  We immediately go on-line and book 4 nights.  Once we move across the street and see what a great spot we have; full hook-ups, laundry facilities and stunning views of the red cliffs, we go back on-line and book the next 4 nights.  We also purchase an annual pass.  This gives us a total of 12 days here in the Fruita/Grand Junction area. 

This time of year the weather in western Colorado is pretty variable and the weather app unreliable… A sunny morning can suddenly morph into gusting winds, thundershowers with huge displays of lightening, or a gentle summer rain.  But nothing last very long… the saying here is, “If you don’t like the weather, wait fifteen minutes.”

T-Rex

The Dinosaur Museum is a perfect diversion on the first rainy day. The exhibits are well done and are geared to both young and not so young visitors.  There is a lot of current information on new paleontology discoveries including some of the dinosaur egg and embryo exhibits that we saw last summer at The Yale University Peabody Natural History Museum.

The Museum of Western Colorado in Grand Junction is light on artifacts but rich in information about the area.  Lots to read here with small displays about the earliest nomads, the pre-Colombian Fremont culture and the Native Ute tribes.  The bulk of the museum is dedicated to more recent (as in the last 200 years) history of the local economy.  The precious metal mining busts and booms of the 19^th and 20^th centuries (including a replica of an uranium mine) and the cowboy culture complete with famous gunslinger weapons.  There is also a tower to climb and get a great 360° view of the entire valley and surrounding mesas.

Bam-O-Rama

Independence
Monument

The Colorado National Monument offers spectacular scenery and some challenging hikes in a compact footprint.  At the visitor center we pick up trail maps and a BLM handout for ancient petroglyphs and pictographs in the area. The drive along the rim with sheer cliffs and a distinct absence of guardrails is not for the timid, but they still drive it and stop on a blind curve and wave us to pass… argh!  From the top of the canyon we do a couple of hikes, the short Canyon Rim Trail grants great views of the colorful Wedding Canyon, Window Rock, the Book Cliffs, the Colorado River and the town of Fruita.  The Coke Ovens Trail, skirts just below the top of the canyon with views of the iconic monuments.  From the bottom of the canyon we take the Monument Canyon Trail to Independence Monument and loop back along the Wedding Canyon Trail.  Along the way we hear what sounds like gunshots reverberating in the canyon.  Once around the corner we see the source of these sounds.  A group of six young Desert Big Horns are gathered in a circle (much like a Rugby scrum) practicing bashing heads.  The rest of the herd is up the canyon with the top ram carefully watching over his haram.

The Grand Mesa the largest flat-topped mountain in North America dominates the Grand Junction Skyline.  Hwy 65 winds up past the Powderhorn Ski Area, across the Mesa and down the other side. At 10,000 ft above sea level, the mesa top is a variety of dense forest, colorful alpine meadows dressed in a plethora of wild flowers and sparkling mountain lakes. There are lots of camping opportunities here, down dirt roads that turn to mud with the afternoon thundershowers.  At one point while exploring the area, we stop and help a guy who stopped to take a picture.  His truck is axel deep in the muddy turnout.   All it takes is a length of rope and Dave pulls the other truck onto solid ground.  Both times we explore the Grand Mesa, instead of taking the civilized highway back, we opt for the more adventurous route down the unpaved narrow End of Land Road. It’s a shorter distance and much more exciting!

Fremont
waving hands

Ute
waving hands

Just northwest of Fruita, Highway 139 connects the towns of Loma and Rangely through the Canyon Pintado HistoricDistrict.  Along this road are nine sites of Fremont Culture and Ute petroglyphs and pictographs.  We use the BLM printout with a map and detailed descriptions of the sites that we picked up at the Colorado National Monument visitor center.  There are also signs along the highway and information at each location.  Some of the sites are visible from the road; others a short hike from the highway.

Collared Lizard

Dinosaur Hill with a large dinosaur bone imprint in the hillside along the highway looks interesting so we stop.  The hiking trail winds around the hill where in 1901 a mostly complete 70-foot long 30 ton Apatosaurus skeleton was exhumed and shipped off to what is now known as the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.  As far as Dino-sites go, there’s really not a lot to see here except a  rock outline on the hillside where the bones where the skeleton was laid out prior to shipping, and the blocked off opening to the tunnel where the skeleton was exhumed.  The interactive signs are missing or so faded that they’re tough to read. The best feature is the imprint of a large dinosaur bone that was illegally removed – the one visible from the highway. It’s like those movie trailers where the only good scene in the movie is the one in the trailer.  It’s a hot short hike through high desert overlooking the Colorado River and the town of Fruita, where dinosaurs used to roam and their ancestors:  birds and lizards (depending on which school of paleontology you subscribe to,) still call this hill home.

Staying this close to a larger city has its advantages. We can shop at REI and Cabellas for our outdoor needs.  The City Market has good selections for most of our foraging needs.   But once we discover Palisade Peaches (fuzzy balls of juicy goodness) and Olathe Sweet Corn (probably the best in the world) we frequent the roadside fruit stands.

There are also lots of restaurants to choose from when cooking is not on the menu.  We only eat out a few times, with the aforementioned forgettable Chinese dinner, another average Mexican meal and a Sushi surprise. 

No Coast Sushi has two locations, one in Grand Junction and a new location in downtown Fruita.  We sit at the Sushi Bar so we can interact with the Chefs.  Traditionalists can enjoy Nigiri and Maki Sushi with fresh seafood flown in from Hawaii 3X a week.  They also offer innovative rolls with regional ingredients created by local chefs.  We take a chance and order a couple of their specials.  The Smoked Duck Roll: with shitake mushrooms, asparagus, fresh mozzarella, tea-smoked duck, hoisin, raspberry, cilantro and gyoza strips.  If it looks like a Sushi roll and tastes like a duck is it still Sushi?  Regardless it tastes really good! The Cougar: fried oysters, cucumber and cream cheese wrapped in marlin with wasabi tobikko, ponzu-katsu sauce and Japanese Mustard has more traditional ingredients and a bright combination of flavors and textures.  All of the specials are created by the No Coast Chefs and they are constantly developing new items with hopes of making the menu.  Our chef treats us to her version of a traditional soba salad, with glass noodles in lieu of the soba topped with a diced octopus ceviche, it’s not on the menu yet but with the great balance of flavors and textures it’s probably only a matter of time.  All this and a bottle of Sake and we’re happy glampers.

There are also the purveyors of adult pick-me-ups in the area.  We don’t make it to any of the area’s wineries (we’ll save this for later.)  We do stop for a pint of stout at the SudsBrothers Brewery. And we pass by the green-cross dispensaries… After 12 days we officially like this part of Colorado and their state park system.  We’ve already bought the annual pass… so it’s off to Ridgway State Park and the land of Ralph Lauren…