Ain't life grand!
August 15, 2016

Grands abound in the country around Fruita: The city of Grand Junction, Grand Mesa, the general location of it all - Grand Valley, and the Grand River - now the Colorado.

I had forgotten about the river's name change until the señor reminded me.  Seems that in 1921, the powers-that-be in Colorado wanted full credit for the river that flows through their state and successfully lobbied the United States Geological (it's hard for me not to write genealogical) Survey to turn the Grand into the Colorado, that same river that formed the Grand Canyon.

Grand geology . . .

Okay, here's the lay of the land as I understand it (that means don't take it to the bank).  We are on the Colorado Plateau which is where the Grand Valley (Fruita, Palisades, Grand Junction, etc.) reside.  Above that on one side stretching for 200 miles are the Book Cliffs.  Also above that in another direction is Grand Mesa on one side and the Uncompaghre Plateau (or Uplift, as Chris renames it just as I almost figure it all out).  The Colorado National Monument across the river from Fruita is part of that uplift.

Book Cliffs . . .

Early in this journey, we hauled the trailer over the Book Cliffs via Highway 191.  That was the day that Chris attempted to assuage my anxiety about mountain driving by saying something along these lines: "We are not going over any mountains today, just the Book Cliffs".

It looked so easy on the map, not so much in reality; however, the summit was a mere 9,114 feet.  The steep winding downhill side was not to my liking a'tall, but my pard accepted my white-knuckle whimperings with some grace (or is it that he is adept at tuning me out?).

A couple of weeks later, we found ourselves traversing a section of those self-same mountains at their base as we made our way southward to Fruita through Grand Junction.  I can't imagine any photograph that could begin to convey the majesty of that formidable escarpment.  I am in awe of their grandeur - from every direction, from every distance, in every light - they are absolutely magnificent.

Curious about the name origin, I discovered that it came about because the sandstone caps on some of the buttes are reminiscent of a shelf of books.

We stopped on the Interstate highway for this shot of a section of Book Cliffs.

The views from Grand Mesa are as beautiful as the views on Grand Mesa - the Book Cliffs again.

Likewise . . .

Grand Mesa, meteors, woodpeckers . . .

Watch for moose on roadway???  Not only did we watch for them on the roadway, we wandered every back road we could find, asked a ranger where they hang out and hiked a goodly stretch into the Lake of the Woods area where moose are known to lurk.

So far, we have not seen bighorn, elk, moose and mountain goats.  Pretty good record, I would say.  Since leaving Craig, though, we have gotten hints about how and where from kind locals there to help the search whenever we may return.

The one thing that we did manage to see and that I forgot to write about were meteors.  Must have been the lack of sleep that caused me to make the Perseid meteor shower a headline and then not mention it at all.

Two nights in a row, we remained up until 2 a.m.ish, far past our bedtime, to watch the show.  Settled back in our comfy chairs snuggled into our throws (more to combat mosquitoes than for warmth), we held out for close to an hour each night.  Some of the remains of Comet Swift-Tuttle were  spectacular fireballs, very bright and leaving long tails of debris, others were quick little guys.  Our sightings averaged about one every two minutes, a very nice display!

We spooked out a great horned owl on our way back to the trailer - they are amazingly huge!

Okay, back to our traverse of Grand Mesa - another exciting sighting: American three-toed woodpeckers.  That was a life bird for me; Chris had seen them when hiking above Wolf Creek Pass without me.

We watched the duo for a very long time, and what an amusing sight it was.  It appeared that one was an adult working diligently at finding food for a large juvenile.  The parent was tearing away at the side of a downed tree while the youngster squatted buddha-like atop the log waiting for its supper.  I love their little yellow caps.

We also spied a brown creeper back in the forest and mountain chickadees.

With the distinction of being the largest flat-topped mountain in the world, and with elevations up to 11,300 feet, it's not surprising to find wonderful conifer forests and lakes, but 300 lakes!?  That's a lot of fishing!  Much of the mesa is either open water as lakes and streams or marshy.

Some of the larger Grand Mesa lakes have houses and cabins around them; several communities are on the mountain and evidently are utilized year-round to take advantage of winter sports.

While hiking, we spotted several marshy ponds with water lillies on them.

A beaver lodge on one of the 300 lakes on Grand Mesa.  This summer, we have been on a multitude of waterways, rivers, streams and lakes, and every single one of them has had beaver sign at it.

In light of that type of environment, we were very surprised to also find a substantial flat sagebrushed plain.

As we threaded our way around and across Grand Mesa, we saw signs alluding to Land's End observatory, assuming it would be a facility for star-gazing, although I doubt that's the exact term astronomers use.  Instead, what we found was a modest rock building that was constructed by WPA and CCC workers in the 1930s.

It does indeed appear to be a land's end - boom! - just like that, the land ends and the air begins.

This road off Grand Mesa leads to the town of Whitewater down below.

At Land's End, a young man had brought his little sister, equipped with a large bag of sunflower seeds to feed the critters.  He said his grandmother used to bring him there at that age and he was passing on the tradition.

The animals must have seen her coming because they were out in legions.  As I munched my lunch, I expected them to snatch it right out of my hands.  Even when I tried to wave them away, they thought I was offering them my sandwich.

I had to laugh in spite of it: I don't know who was more excited, the youngster or the critters.

Wildflowers were in full bloom during our day on Grand Mesa, everywhere we looked, more flowers, and best of all, my favorite - raspberries!

Heavenly!

Note to Ty: I am finally getting the hang of the new camera and close-ups, and you're right, I didn't need to read the manual.

This snow gauge is a pretty good indication of what winters are like on Grand Mesa.

RV folks . . .

I am so fond of the RV lifestyle!  So completely different from other ways I have traveled, it allows a person to make connections that would never happen otherwise.  We have stayed in campsites maintained by Forest Service, BLM, private commercial, chains, counties and small towns.  The variety is huge, but they all have one thing in common - camaraderie.

In contrast, road tripping to lodge in motels and the like is isolating.  Check in, go to your room and close the door to the outside world, at least until breakfast when you may casually say hello to fellow travelers.

At first, I was cautious about leaving belongings outside, but have come to understand that even scuzzy man camp types have a sort of code of honor about others' sites.  You may have your privacy if you want or you may be open to every passer-by.

If you appear to be having any kind of trouble, help is instantly offered and seems to know no bounds.  If you have questions about local activities, routes to and from anywhere, regions unknown, types of rigs, local eateries, veterinarians, doctors, restaurants, places of interest or pretty much anything else, neighbors are at hand.  In short, there's always someone to visit with.

At home, it may take some time to get to know your neighbors; in an RV park, it happens in a thrice.  In our few days here, most of which have been off gallivanting, we have gotten acquainted with several folks, including a surprising number of Arizonans.

One couple from the San Tan Valley region south of Phoenix were here for only overnight, but were friendly neighbors.  Marie was traveling from the Apache Junction area.  Chuck and Joyce are eight-month newlyweds after having 50-some years with previous spouses.  They will be leaving the same day as us after cutting short their summer out because of his freak very serious accident in the park.  He tripped on a curb, fell and shattered his knee cap and broke both wrists, so after 27 days in the hospital, he's ready to go home.  They received much support and help from the RV park staff here.

By far our favorite neighbors here were Peggy & Mitch, who shared several evenings with us.  They are experienced canoeists and kayakers, true adventurers who have ventured onto waterways far and near.  They have invited us to visit them in Virginia where they live near the Shenandoah River and have agreed to take us kayaking there.

Mitch also spent time in the hospital, so now we have it on good authority from two sources that the medical facility in Grand Junction is exemplary.  We seem to have met an inordinate number of folks whose RV travels have been interrupted by medical issues.  I just learned that our new friend, Robbie, from Texas was halted in Williams, Arizona, on their way home while she had an emergency appendectomy.

Although socialization is a major joy of RVing for me, there are many reasons I prefer it to other modes of travel; it's very comfortable to have your own little home away from home - your own bed, kitchen, food and so on.  If you want a summer cabin on a lake, take your pick.  Mountains are your thing?  Choose whichever you like.  Take off for warmer climes or cooler weather; your vacation cabin goes with you. 

I totally get why our friend Bill is still RVing at age 88.  It's addictive!