14 October 2010 As we tried to leave the driveway at Sol and Carol’s, we found our tires frozen to the ground… I guess it was time to continue heading south. It’s always hard to say good-bye to friends, but on the other hand, we’ll see them in 2 weeks as we join another couple in heading to Mexico again. Our journey took us west from Steamboat Springs to Craig and then south towards Grand Junction, Colorado. This day will take us about 200 miles and into the Colorado National Monument, which sits high above Grand Junction/Fruita. As we pulled up to the kiosk at the park we were met with a road construction flagger. It seems that the whole park has been getting a new road surface and we’ll be following a lead car all the way up to the Visitor Center/Campground, or about 15 miles. In a way this is “all good” as everyone will have to go slow, and with the steepness of this roadway,
we wouldn’t have a chance to make it above 25mph towing with the coach. With it being late Friday afternoon when we got up to the campground we were hoping that there would be a spot for us to stay the night. Well we got there early enough, but before dusk the whole campground was full with hikers, bikers, and those of us that just came to see the wonderful sights of nature. I thought you might like to see what our campground looks like from the other side of the canyon…
After unhooking the car from the coach, we drove over to the visitor center, saw a couple of videos covering the history and beauty of the park, and took a hike down to view the Pipe Organ formation and get a little “flute time” in.
Then with the sun showing its last sun beams of the day we decided to drive the 23 miles of the Rim Rock Drive. First off I’d like to compliment the bikers that ride the 23 miles from base to summit to base…amazing !!! The rim drive was advertized as having breath taking views and with enough pull-offs for us, we took advantage of it to see all this beauty. One of the stops was to view Independence Monument.
As we were enjoying this monolith our eyes caught sight of 3 climbers that were just about ready to top-out…another “amazing” !!!
We watched them for quite awhile but as time and sun were leaving us we decided to head on. As the sun disappeared and darkness arrived we found ourselves pulling into Grand Junction just in time for dinner. Tomorrow we’ll start early and see as much as we can before heading further south.