Road Trip #5 - Day 8, Riding the Grand Mesa and Colorado National Monument

August 26, 2011
Colorado, USA

What a great day! We managed to get in two rides we have been meaning to do for quite some time and both of them exceeded our expectations.

After a restful night in our little motel, we rose to beautiful blue skies and the hope they would last most of the day. Heck, a whole day of blue skies sounded like heaven, but we would take what we could get.

We swallowed some oatmeal, craisins and a cinnabun which were the meager offerings at the motel's continental breakfast. The coffee - geez - is there some rule that motel coffee has to taste awful? Ha!

Part 1 - Riding the Grand Mesa

The idea we came up with last night over a couple of beers still sounded plausible this morning so we rolled out on Hwy 50 to ride The Grand Mesa. We approached it from the south side via Hwy 65 just outside of Delta, CO. A friend who is from Grand Junction told us about riding the Grand Mesa. He was right. I would have never guessed how much is going on up there. In addition to the forest, lush green alpine valleys and outstanding vistas of the Grand Valley below, there are little towns, motels, small businesses, farms, camping, fishing, hiking, the Powderhorn Ski area and all kinds of fun stuff. Grand Mesa is allegedly the world's largest flat top mountain, being about 40 miles long with an area of about 500 square miles. There are over 300 lakes on the mesa. Rising about 5000 feet above the valleys below it reaches an overall elevation of over 11,000 feet. It was warm enough to ride out of Grand Junction in short sleeves, but about a third of the way up the mesa, we stopped and pulled on our jackets. We had a little intermittent rain. We stopped at the Visitor Center and roamed around for a while and snapped a couple of photos beside Cobbet Lake. The descent on the north end of Hwy 65 lets out into a great canyon before the road junctions with I-70.

Tim enjoying The Grand Mesa ride

Slide show of Grand Mesa ride (69 photos):

Part 2 - Riding the Colorado National Monument

We have visited Grand Junction many times and have often wondered about the Colorado National Monument. A little research revealed there is a drive along the rim of the monument that sounded like fun. It is fun. Riding the few miles back to Grand Junction after Hwy 65 dumped us out on I-70, we followed the signage in town to the monument entrance. Next time, we will look for a better route as the signage led us through the urban area of Grand Junction where we encountered too many lights and too much traffic. As soon as we paid our entry fee to the park ($5 for a motorcycle), we pulled over and shed our jackets. On top of the mesa, the temps had dropped into the 50s. Now we were in the 90s.

Rim Rock Drive is 23 miles of fun riding. The monument is about 32 square miles and encompasses over 20,000 acres. The road immediately ascends to spectacular height via some tight twisties. There are several great pull offs, a tunnel and observation points all along the way. Monument Canyon runs the width of the park and includes rock formations with names like Independence Monument and the Coke Ovens. From several vantage points you get a spectacular view of The Grand Mesa, the Book Cliffs and Mount Garfield across the Colorado Plateau.

Tim and Vik - Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, CO

Slide show of the Rim Rock Ride (95 photos):

First stop after the Rim Rock Drive was a convenience store for ice cream and something cold to drink.

Part 3 - The road to Meeker, CO

We had thought we might ride scenic Hwy 139 north out of Grand junction today as Douglas Pass is another fun ride. Black clouds and rain shafts hovering in that direction changed our minds about that. Instead, we rode east on I-70 to Rifle and picked up Hwy 13 north to Meeker. Meeker was more-or-less the destination we had in mind for the end of the day.

Elk Mountain Inn - Meeker, CO

We checked into the last room available in the Elk Mountain Inn. There was another Harley in the parking lot. The rest of the vehicles belonged to road construction crews. The room is a pleasant surprise! Actually, this is the best room we have stayed in since we left The Mecca Motel in Colorado Springs last Sunday. Nicely appointed, roomy and clean. Immaculate is a better word.

After freshening up, we headed across the street to a Mexican Food restaurant in search of sustenance and maybe a margarita. We found ourselves slowly approaching the Fiesta Guadalajara Restaurant, contemplating whether to venture into a restaurant that had not a single car in the parking lot. We entered the foyer which is basically a mud room or mud hall, typical of older restaurants in snow country. It was not clean and furniture and other stuff was piled up at one end. I was about to voice my opposition to the idea of eating there when Tim homed in on a beacon at the end of the hall and was already half a dozen steps ahead of me. The beacon being a beer sign. Too late - said the little voice inside my head - might as well live dangerously. Ha!

Through the glass doors we went and found ourselves in a nicely appointed, brightly painted Mexican decor. We were greeted immediately and seated in a booth. Well, since we were the only customers in the place, we agreed if we didn't like the menu, we would order a margarita and some chips and salsa and take it from there. You can judge Mexican food by the quality of the chips and salsa and a margarita. As it is, the menu was wide open, listing all the traditional Mexican dishes in the proper lingo, including those with fish, shrimp, pork and chicken. The chips were fresh and the salsa was good. The margarita was a bit on the sweet side for me but Tim liked it. Our meals were served up hot and plated nicely, camarones diablo (spicy shrimp and mushrooms) for me and a huge sampler platter for Tim. Both meals were great, that includes the real freshly prepared, refried beans and rice (no canned stuff). The red chili sauce on my dish was tangy and warm with body. Very tasty. We took our time and enjoyed the meal. By the time we left, the restaurant had a nice crowd of locals, construction workers from our motel and tourists.

After our meal, we strolled across the street. I called The Folks while Tim settled in at table in the lush, green common area with a beer he had purchased earlier from the convenience store across the street. Before I had finished my conversation with Mom, the couple on the other Harley had joined Tim. We enjoyed an evening with Vivien and David from Utah, swapping ride stories and laughs until well after curfew. We swapped contact information and promised to touch base with each other when we rode into the other ones territory.

Here is a slide show of the ride to Meeker, CO (20 photos):

Today's mileage = 219.6 miles

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More info:
The Grand Mesa
Colorado National Monument
Rim Rock Drive