TUESDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2024

(Grand Junction, CO)

Woke up at 8am, when the alarm clock went off. Breakfast is only served until 9am here, so getting up was a necessity. A look out of the window suggested there was no rush though, as a storm was passing through with rain and high winds. So, after breakfast, we returned to the room and relaxed, drank coffee, and I finished up the video from yesterday.

We decided that a good course of action would be to go shopping, and so we spent a couple of happy hours browsing the REI store, and finding ways to spend the dividends we earned on last year’s purchases. By then it was getting towards 1pm. But it was now raining heavily again, so we crossed off the idea of a three mile canyon hike to the Liberty Cap, and drove up to the Colorado National Monument’s visitor centre. 

By this time it was sunny, but as we’d climbed up to the top of the cliffs the temperature had dropped. It was now 48F, or about 9 degrees. And we were wearing shorts…. Nevertheless, we decided to walk the one mile alcove trail, which we’d not previously done, but which would mean we were close to the car if it started raining again. And so my outfit comprised the eclectic choices of a woolly hat, sunglasses, sunset, padded gilet and shorts. Summer…winter… whatever!

The trail, which started from the visitor centre, was short but interesting. There were juniper trees with berries, pine trees with pine cones, cliffs with water pockets, fast scuttling chipmunks, and it finished, not surprisingly given the trail name, at an alcove. This was deep in water, so our walk would have ended there, even if the trail continued.

[Editor’s note: video is here https://vimeo.com/1024588602.]

Back at the visitor centre it was still sunny, so we decided to do another walk, this time along the Rim Trail. To get to it, we had to pass through a group of school students who seemed to be having a much better time than in regular classes. The trail had great views of the monuments, and across the Grand Valley. We stopped at a shelter to eat snack bars, and it was nice to be out of the wind for a bit. From there we walked to the end of the trail, at which point Andrew looked behind us. It was starting to cloud over and was headed our way, so we beat a hasty retreat, and walked back somewhat quicker than we had come. 

[Editor’s note: here’s the video https://vimeo.com/1024589274.]

We got back, still dry, and I had a chat with a ranger to get some advice on options for tomorrow. A lot will depend on the weather. We headed back towards town, stopped on route by bighorn sheep in the road, and it briefly rained again, so we timed it well.

After buying fuel and beer, we returned to our room, showered, and then went back to Pablo’s for dinner. There were interesting Halloween decorations in shop windows, and equally fascinating street art outside a bike shop. 

Now to relax, and have another early night.