THURSDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2025

(Grand Junction, CO)

We woke up to the alarm clock. The only problem was, it wasn’t our alarm clock. Someone must have set the room clock for 6am on a Thursday. Unfortunately, that was too late in the night for me to get back to sleep. I read my book (which is actually quite a pleasure, as I’m reading a really good thriller), until it was time to go down and get the coffee. 

After breakfast (sadly the pancake machine failed today), showers and packing for the day we drove over the Colorado River and up to the Colorado National Monument visitor centre. This was closed due to the government shutdown, but was the starting point for our hike today, up onto Black Ridge. A bluejay was teasing me in the car park, but did eventually pose for a photo.

The trail is a mix of steep uphill sections, climbing the side of rocky outcrops, interspersed with gentle uphill sections across juniper and pine covered mesas. The weather was cool, around 13 degrees, but the strong sun meant that by noon, we’d both changed from short sleeved t-shirts to sun shirts to keep cool as we climbed. The wind, which was forecast to be 10-15mph, got substantially stronger as we got onto the ridge. Andrew tied his hat on, and I took mine off for safe keeping.

We reached a narrow white rock ridge, which separates two canyons and offers great views both ways. We had a snack bar there before starting our descent.

This trail is the highest in the park, and is mostly in the BLM managed McInnis Cactus Conservation Area, which abuts the Monument lands. It has great views across the Grand Valley, over to the wonderfully crinkled Book Cliffs, named because they resemble a sheriff of books. Incidentally, the Grand Valley and Grand Junction are named after the Grand River (and its junction with the Gunnison River), which was the name of this section of the Colorado until 1921, when its name was changed to reflect the state the majority of the water came from. Until then, technically the Colorado River started in Utah.

We continued our descent, passing the trail marker sign indicating 0.5 miles to go, which meant there was only another 0.85 miles left… We had the trail entirely to ourselves, from beginning to end. Oh, and no signs of a mountain lion this year, either.

It was only about 2pm, so we decided to get lunch at Denny’s, which we did in quite a leisurely manner. This was followed by a trip to REI, just because it’s here! Back at the hotel, suitably cleaned up and rested we went back to Pablo’s for dinner. Our last night in Grand Junction, it’s onto Moab tomorrow.

Today’s hiking video is here: https://vimeo.com/1134481328