We had a straight-forward, uneventful but beautiful ride for the last day of our tour. We got our earliest start yet of the tour, dining in our motel room on leftover pizza from last nights meal at Hot Tomato. With the projected high in the mid-nineties, we were out the door by about 7:30, determined to complete most of our ride before the day heats up too much.
Riding through the monument is another repeat experience for me. When I was here the first time, I was biking in the opposite direction on a tour that began in mid-April in Grand Junction. It snowed the evening I flew in, and the next morning the park looked like this:
Today of course, like every other day on this tour, the weather was quite different - sunny, warm, and dry. It is a bit amazing to have experienced 18 straight days of fair weather on this tour.
The rim road through Colorado Monument is a famously fine ride. If you haven't seen it before, I can recommend the film American Flyers, a bike racing drama set on this road that stars Kevin Costner in one of his earliest roles. If we lived here I'm sure we'd be on this road all the time, ripping through it on training rides. Today though we're tourists, and use every excuse to stop and look over the edge at the dramatic views.
We arrived in Grand Junction in mid-afternoon and settled into our downtown hotel room for a brief rest before heading out for a delicious meal at Il Bistro Italiano.
Elevation gain: today, 3,900'; for the tour, 53,600'.
Leaving Fruita, we immediately cross the Colorado and begin the gradual climb toward Colorado National Monument.
If you go, be sure to take your lights. as they won't let you in with your bikes without them. We had our headlights only, but fortunately they have cheapo rear flashers you can borrow at the entrance kiosk and drop off when you leave.
Entering the park from the west end, the first two tunnels are like this one - not much need for lights even though you're supposed to have them on. The real reason they're needed is for the long tunnel at the east end of the park.
We passed this man and his two sons several times on the initial climb, and then fell behind again when we stopped to take in the views. We were amused to see him reach over and douse each of them from his water bottle to encourage them on. Better than chocolate, he assured us.
Looking down from the rim into Fruita Canyon and the twisted road we just climbed to get here. The blue band is the Colorado River; the green is the cultivated land surrounding Fruita; and the distant ridge is the Book Cliffs - the same broad formation we started following days ago near Green River.
A side blotched lizard, yet another new one for me on this tour. And a thank you again to William Shaneyfelt for his naturalist's consulting services via the guestbook. Much appreciated, William!
This was a very common sight. This is probably the most bike-centric park we've cycled through. In the first hours of our visit, while it was still coolish, the number of bikers probably outnumbered motor vehicles by three to one.
Looking down Red Canyon toward Grand Junction. We left the park soon after this on a side road that climbs back onto the mesa, so we missed the exciting descent down through the canyon and it's long tunnel.
