Trip to Grand Junction

The day after Halloween, we drove across the mountains to Grand Junction to meet up with the Diddawah  for a camping trip in Moab. We'd planned to leave early enough to do some riding when we got to GJ, and we did, but it was close. We didn't leave as early as we'd hoped because it's so difficult and always takes so long to pack all of our stuff into and onto our truck. Also, the closing on our Michigan home was occurring coincidentally, so during our drive to GJ we had to stop in at a FedEx store to print, sign, and fax a few more documents, which ate up a good couple of hours. It all worked out though: the closing went through on the Michigan house and we made it to Grand Junction in time to get in some riding.

We started at the Loma parking lot at the Kokopelli trails near Fruita and rode Rustler's Loop and part of Mary's.

Rustler's is an easy 3.5-mile loop trail that runs along the perimeter of a bench overlooking the Colorado River. The trail stays comfortably back from the edge in most places, but the views are incredible. We were a little concerned that our Mousie might not understand the concept of a cliff and would just run right off. For better or for worse, it appears that he has an instinctive understanding of this particular peril. He ran up to the edge several times, but always stopped just short of falling.

It was getting late in the day, so we didn't have as much time as might have been nice, but with the sun near the horizon, the scenery was wonderful.

After the ride, we went to the Diddiwah's house for some delicious home made pizzas. The next morning, we followed the Colorado River further downstream to Moab.