GREAT Colorado Getaways - EnCompass Magazine Online

Great Colorado Getaways

Western Slope

By Dan Leeth

Colorado's Western Slope offers a terrain of bold beauty and ageless history. In this realm of bluffs and buttes, dinosaurs once roamed, cliff-dwellers farmed and miners sluiced streams in a search for elusive wealth. For the summer visitor, the ground between mountains and desert typically features brilliant days and balmy nights where campers can roast s'mores beneath unfettered skies glowing with starry luminescence.

Photo: Larry Pierce / CTO

Grand Valley

For most Coloradans, the Grand Valley serves as the Western Slope's prime gateway. The valley's warm summer days provide an ideal habitat for fruit trees. Roadside markets vend harvest-fresh apples, apricots, cherries, pears, peaches and plums. Many consider it a travesty not to bring home a bushel after a visit.

With climate and soil resembling France's Upper Rhône region, the area hosts 16 wineries and meaderies, most of which tempt travelers with tasting rooms. A case of cabernet fits nicely in the trunk beside the peaches.

For the shopper, Grand Junction's pedestrian-friendly Main Street has boutique shops and sidewalk restaurants in buildings that once held department stores. There's nary a Starbucks in sight. Downtown java junkies quaff caffeine at independents like Coffee Muggers, where a 20-ounce cup is simply called a "large."

Duffers have five sets of links in the area to choose from, including the award-winning Golf Club at Redlands Mesa. The course offers a championship layout with verdant greens flanked by ruddy rock.

Photo: Grand Junction CVB

Beyond lies Colorado National Monument, an enclave of canyons, cliffs and vertigo—inducing overlooks west of the city. Motorists and cyclists can enjoy lofty views from Rim Rock Drive while hikers have 11 different drainage systems to explore. Nearby, the expansive McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area features mixed use trails and a 24-mile stretch of the Colorado River ideal for fishing, canoeing, kayaking and rafting.

When temperatures become too torrid for desert activities, locals head for Grand Mesa on the southeast side of the valley. This 10,000-foot flat-topped mountain offers picnicking and camping under the conifers as well as the lure of fish-rich lakes and streams.

Kids who think T-Rex is neater than trout will enjoy the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita. The center features hands-on exhibits, skeletal displays and robotic representations of the giant reptiles that once roamed the area.

Grand Junction Visitor & Convention Bureau: 800-962-2547, www.visitgrandjunction.com

Canyons of the Yampa and Green

Another site devoted to Barney's brethren is Dinosaur National Monument, which overlaps the Utah border in northwestern Colorado. In the early 1900s, Professor Earl Douglass discovered a dinosaur bone outcrop here, and his ensuing quarry yielded skeletons of a dozen different species.

Rim-top overlooks provide views of the Green and Yampa rivers. In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell's expedition entered the present-day monument through the Gates of Lodore, a river-carved notch in billion-year-old quartzite. The next day, his party crashed through a cataract where they lost one of their four boats and a third of their provisions. Powell named the obstacle "Disaster Falls." Dinosaur National Monument: 970-374-3000, www.nps.gov/dino

Canyon of the Gunnison

Disastrous rapids are not a problem in the Curecanti National Recreation Area southwest of Gunnison, where three reservoirs tame the Gunnison River. The top one, Blue Mesa, is Colorado's largest body of water and the nation's largest kokanee fishery.

Downstream lies Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, one of the deepest and narrowest clefts in the country. The view from above is spectacular, but there are no maintained trails to the bottom.

Photo: NPS / Lisa Lynch

After flowing through the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area, the river passes Delta. Eleven murals celebrate the town's agricultural heritage. Visitors craving a nostalgic evening can catch a film at the 1954-vintage Tru-Vu Drive-In Theater.

Curecanti National Recreation Area: 970-641-2337, www.nps.gov/cure
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park: 970-641-2337, www.nps.gov/blca
Delta Area Chamber of Commerce: 970-874-8616, www.deltacolorado.org

San Miguel, Dolores and Unaweep Canyons

The nostalgia of a twisty two-lane roadway can be found on the Unaweep/Tabeguache Scenic and Historic Byway. Starting as Colorado 145 near Telluride, the route parallels the San Miguel River past old mining sites. Meadows and farm land dominate as the route shifts to Colorado 141 near Naturita. Down the highway stand the urani-um/vanadium-mining remains of Uravan.

The canyon deepens as the San Miguel River meets the Dolores. Here, bolted to towering sandstone cliffs, run the remains of Hanging Flume. Built in the late 1800s, the seven-mile aqueduct delivered water to power mining operations.

The road and river descend to Gateway, a community revitalized since Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks opened the Gateway Canyons Resort and Gateway Colorado Auto Museum. The prize of the 40-car collection is a 1954 Olds F-88 which Hendricks purchased for $3,000,000. The route continues northeast through Unaweep Canyon, passing a habitat for rare butterflies and a stone mansion constructed in the 1910s by a wealthy New Yorker. The byway ends 15 miles southeast of Grand Junction.

Colorado Scenic Byways: www.coloradobyways.org
Gateway Canyons Resort: 866-671-4733, www.gatewaycanyons.com

Tributaries of the San Juan

Around the San Juan River and its tributary canyons, Native Americans known as Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) flourished until around 1300 AD.

For westbound drivers on US 160, the first encounter with the ancients comes at the Chimney Rock Archeological Area, southwest of Pagosa Springs. The site's natural twin spires may have been used for astronomical observations. The summer solstice sun rises centered on a wall of the Great House near the pillars, and the gap between the twin "chimneys" can be used to measure a recurring phenomenon known as lunar standstill.

Down the highway, Mesa Verde National Park protects more than 4,000 ancient sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. Ranger-led walking tours allow visitors to examine the native structures up close.

The nearby Ute Mountain Tribal Park lies on the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation south of Cortez off US 491. Full-day tours led by Ute Indian guides take visitors to four seldom-seen cliff dwellings.

More ancestral sites can be seen in Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, an enclave lying between US 491 and the Utah border. Rangers ask visitors to stop at the Anasazi Heritage Center for orientation. Located outside of Dolores on Colorado 184, the center offers archaeological, historical and cultural exhibits.

Those who have not had enough should head for Hovenweep National Monument, six sites along the Colorado-Utah border. The largest collection of buildings is the Square Tower Group, named for a three-story structure carefully constructed atop a boulder. A hiking trail accesses two additional collections of dwellings, and gravel roads lead to others.

A convenient place to stay when visiting the Ancestral Puebloan lands is Cortez. Its modern-day trading posts sell Navajo and Ute art, and tribal members present dance programs on summer nights at the Cortez Cultural Center.

Cortez offers chain motels and local eateries, but nary a Starbucks. Instead, coffee drinkers drive down Main Street to the Silver Bean, a shop built in a 1969 Airstream travel trailer. Of course, their 20-ounce cup is simply called a "large."

Chimney Rock Archeological Center: 970-883-5359, www.chimneyrockco.org
Mesa Verde National Park: 970-529-4465, www.nps.gov/meve
Ute Mountain Tribal Park: 800-847-5485, www.utemountainute.com/tribalpark.htm
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument: 970-882-5600, www.co.blm.gov/canm
Anasazi Heritage Center:970-882-5600, www.co.blm.gov/ahc
Hovenweep National Monument: 970-562-4282, www.nps.gov/hove
Cortez Chamber of Commerce: 970-565-3414

Dan Leeth is a freelance writer and photographer from Aurora.