SUNDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2023

(Grand Junction, CO)

44F, blues skies and sunshine. Andrew was awake before me and opened the curtains to reveal the days’s weather. It had been raining in the night but there was little to show of that now.

I eventually got out of bed, so we could go downstairs and get breakfast, before showering and preparing for our first ‘real’ hike today, but which I mean one that required packs, hydration, boots and hiking poles. It also meant trying to guess how many and what layers we might need. After a few days we’ll get the hang of this again, but we’re a bit trail rusty right now.

We drove back to Colorado National Monument, this time taking the eastern entrance and parking at the first trailhead, the Devil’s Kitchen picnic area.

Once we were ready, we started along the trail to the Devil’s Kitchen. The first section was a really beautiful, sandy trail, meandering through juniper, manzanita and rabbit brush plants. The canyon walls rose up in the distance and it was pleasantly warm in the sunshine, but cold in the shade and the wind.

After a while the trail started to go up. And up. An initial short section of wooden steps gave way to an inclined rock face, which required some guesswork as to which was the actual route. Half way up some steps had been cut into a particularly steep section of rock, indicating we were still headed the right way. Further still, there was a marker post confirming that the next bit was indeed up a steep rock section, rather than along a nice sandy looking bench.

At the top, the trail ended inside a towering rock feature. The walls climbed high above on either side, with views out to surrounding canyons.

After exploring a little bit, we headed back down the way we came. Once at the bottom we had a choice. We could continue hiking in this area and take another trail, or go and hike a trail in the main monument area that we had visited yesterday. As we were having a really enjoyable time, we decided to continue where we were, and take the No Thoroughfare Canyon Trail as far as the first pool, a distance of about 1 mile each way.

The trail started off across a meadow before dropping down into a dry river bed, which it followed upstream. Sometimes it was best to walk up and along the back to avoid large rocks and debris, at others it was necessary to carefully weave between boulders. Hiking was anything but a straight line.

The scenery was stunning, cliffs above, golden leaves on a few trees, pine trees, juniper, small birds darting around, the occasional lizard, and very quiet.

The pool, despite last night’s rain, was dry when we got there, but it was a lovely place to sit and eat our lunch, before returning the way we came.

Back at the car, we decided that the 4 miles were had hiked was enough for today, and that we’d head to the REI store. It was in Grand Junction, in 2006, that I originally discovered REI, and regular readers will know that there’s usually a visit to a store at some point in the trip. We had a good time, found a few things, and I bought a topo map of the area, which will come in handy tomorrow (more of that, later).

We went back to hotel, relaxed, had a drink and a snack and watched the sun getting lower in the sky. We went out to dinner as the surrounding cliffs turned deep pink. After walking up and down Main Street we chose the Rockslide Brewery. A nice meal in an old building.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we were going to visit Black Canyon, but…we’re having an unexpectedly great time at Colorado National Monument, and there’s still much more to see of it. Back Canyon, although I was looking forward to it, is an 80 mile drive each way, and so we have made the decision to stay here and do another hike. First, more sleep…