desert trip, part 2

It dawned bright, sunny and chilly in Fruita Friday morning and once we'd donned our fleeces and warm hats, we strolled back into town for bagels and coffee at the Aspen Street Coffee shop, located in a historic bank building.  By 9:30 a.m. we were at the southern entrance of the Colorado National Monument - a park H hadn't even known existed until I mentioned that I thought we should check it out.  Looming over Fruita and Grand Junction, this national monument is a quiet gem.  We had no idea that we would spend our whole day there, but we did.

Southern entrance to the CNM

First off, before we were even out of sight of the entrance station, we had parked at the Devil's Kitchen trail head to do some hiking.  We first did the Serpent Trail, the original monument road, twisty with switchbacks; then the out-and-back to Echo Canyon, which had a little bit of everything (sand, slickrock, a tree-shaded wash); and then the quickie up to Devil's Kitchen.  The Serpent Trail had a good number of people on it - it's so close to GJ neighborhoods that a lot of people come just for their morning exercise and then go home - but we amazingly had the other two trails to ourselves.

At the head of Echo Canyon

Echo Canyon trail

H at Devil's Kitchen

After getting our own exercise, we drove the monument's Rim Rock scenic drive (23 miles total) and stopped at almost every scenic turnout and trail head: Cold Shivers point, Red Canyon overlook, Ute Canyon view, Fallen Rock overlook, Upper Utah Canyon view, Highland view, Artists point, the Coke Ovens overlook (we did the one mile roundtrip out to the Coke Ovens features), Monument Canyon view, Grand View, Independence Monument view, Book Cliffs view, Balanced Rock view, etc.

Cold Shivers Point

Red Canyon

We also made note of several hikes, especially the Ute Canyon one, that we thought we might like to come back and do with more time. 

Looking up Ute Canyon

During our time around the drive, we found this sign (below) and were a little puzzled.  What's a half tunnel?  Wouldn't that just be a cave?  (And a zero tunnel would be a wall.) 

In actuality, the Half Tunnel is the site of a tragic construction accident in the 1930s, when nine men died during a collapse while building that portion of the road.  The NPS has a marker commemorating those lives lost.

Looking down Ute Canyon

The Coke Ovens from a distance

We didn't see many critters on our passage through the Colorado National Monument, lots of birds and one desert cottontail as we turned into the visitors' center.  We hit the jackpot, however, just as we went through the tunnels on our way out: a small herd of desert bighorn sheep, grazing roadside.  The park ranger indulgently allowed us to take some photos before politely urging us along - it was a bad place to be stopped on the road.  But, finally - bighorn sheep!

Desert bighorn sheep!

It was nearly 5 p.m. when we left the monument and we were in need of refreshment.  A quick stop at Kannah Creek West (a newer brewpub, somewhat awkwardly placed outside of downtown Fruita in a strip mall) for beers and chips and salsa tided us over.  We got back to the motel, cleaned up and then walked to the park in the center of town for Fruita's last Food Truck Friday.  It was after dark and many of the trucks had started to sell out of stuff but we managed to procure a hummus wrap and a batch of handcut fries to share while live music played up on stage.

Grand Junction from the scenic drive

After eating, we checked out the other "downtown" brewpub, Suds Brothers (originally from Evanston, Wyoming).  It was big and pretty busy but didn't seem to attract the locals that the smaller Copper Club did, just down the street.  So we went back to the Copper Club for a last beer: the bartender remembered us and said welcome back.  The place was hopping but a local couple sat with us and introduced us to about half the bar, including the head of the Fruita Chamber of Commerce and his wife.  When we got invited to a wedding the next day - to which our new friends thought they might bring a hot tub - we felt right at home.

Independence Monument

Hike stats: 8.58 total miles; 3:11 moving time at 2.8 avg. m.p.h.; 1,600 feet of elevation.