We Have Tasty Water

We are very lucky here in Grand Junction. Not only is our water good
to drink, it is very good to drink. You would think that with the
Colorado and Gunnison Rivers flowing nearby, we would get our
water from there. We do, but those sources are strictly for irrigation.
Our drinking water comes from pristine streams and reservoirs on
Grand Mesa, just east of town. Grand Mesa gets tons of snow during
the winter and much of that trickles down via Kannah Creek and the
Purdy Reservoir flowline, straight to our taps. This summer, there is
still snow up on the Mesa. That means that there will be no shortage
of our favorite tasty beverage this year.

Altitude = Cool

The goal for most folks in Grand Junction this time of year is
to stay cool, since we're experiencing several 100 degree plus
days in a row. For some, that means staying in air conditioned
or evaporative cooled (swamp cooler) buildings. For others, it
means gaining some altitude. That typically means heading up
to the mountains, Glade Park or Grand Mesa. On our the way
back from our "interesting" trip yesterday to Battlement Mesa,
we took a diversion at the small town of Debeque and followed
45 1/2 Road to near the small town of Mesa. This is where we
followed Colorado Route 330 up to the tiny town of Collbran.
We had visited Collbran once, back in 2006, when we were
exploring places to live. It's a much nicer little town in the
summer (we visited in February last time) and although it has
a year-round population, it caters to tourists headed to points
beyond. We drove right on through town, knowing we had to
come back this way and headed on to Vega State Park. This
is a very nice little Colorado State Park that has boating, fishing
and camping. We were given some very helpful information by
Jody at the Visitor's Center about camping and we plan on coming
back in a few weeks. For now though, we drove around the
lake, taking in the scenery and evaluating the campsites. It's
not a very big lake (925 acres) but it's very clean and scenic.
Plus, it's altitude is about 8000 feet, which is about 3000 feet
higher than Grand Junction, making it a bit cooler.


On the way home (about an hour's drive), we saw lots of lush
valleys (rare for this part of the country) and some really tranquil,
verdant ranch land. When we stopped at "The Drive In" in Colbran for
Ice Cream, we were the only ones there. By the time we left, there
were a total of 14 people in the small restaurant. Obviously others
were trying to keep cool today as well.

Reeder Mesa

Just south of Grand Junction, and just south of the tiny town
of Whitewater, we took a turn east off of US 50 onto Reeder
Mesa Road. It was pretty amazing how many houses have
been built up in this area, but aren't visible from the highway!
However, if you want to have a bunch of trees in your yard,
or for that matter, a yard at all, this is not the place for it!


Much of the ground looks just like this.


There are lots of barren-looking hills that have a stark beauty
to them. We kept driving east, toward the Grand Mesa, and by
the time we reached the top of Reeder Mesa, it was a totally
different scene. We drove through lots of hayfields and even
drove by a winery. We came to a fork...one way continuing
on to Lands End on the Grand Mesa and the other back to
Highway 50. We chose the latter, saving the trip up Lands
End Road for another day.

Finally Home!

After a long flight and almost as long a layover in Dallas, I took
off for Grand Junction and found it to be a very snowy and wintery
scene.


It's always great seeing Mt. Garfield and the Grand Mesa. Two more
signs that I was home.


Of course Lynn was waiting for me at the airport, and she was the
main sign and reason I was home at last after being separated for
five plus months. It will be fun spending the next seven months in
our happy little desert town!

Grand Mesa National Forest

We see Grand Mesa every day from Grand Junction but
until now had never taken a drive through this beautiful
part of Colorado.


Water seemed to be one of the themes of the day as we
saw streams and lakes everywhere.


Wildlife was abundant and had very little fear of humans.


Lots of people were out on the many lakes, enjoying
some early autumn fishing.


There were lots of trails that we want to check out and
hike next summer.


Deep thoughts...with Tom Hamann...LOL


There were hillsides at every turn that were on fire with
color.


The views were awesome!


At Land's End one can see all the way to Utah from almost
11,000 feet altitude. That's Grand Junction in the center
of the photo.


These little guys have obviously played the "pose for the
tourist" game before.


Each direction had fantastic views. This is overlooking
the Gunnison River valley and Uncompahgre Plateau to
the southwest.


Somewhere in the middle of this photo is our house!


Even more birds were practically begging to have their
photo taken.


Gold and Green apparently aren't the only fall colors in
Colorado.


Some of the Aspen were holding onto summer and were
stubbornly staying green.


Although it was a bit hazy and warm in the valley (84 degrees),
the air was clear and a crisp 51 degrees on top of the Mesa.
That's what 6000 feet of altitude will do for you!


One of the few buildings at Land's End is the Observatory,
built by the CCC during the Depression by World War I Vets.

The East Valley

We've been driving around a bit since we've been in Phoenix
and most of it has been spent in the East Valley since that's
where I used to live and we know the area better. We went to
a yarn store and this was outside of it. I doubt it's the world's
largest chair, but it's probably the world's largest "Pink" chair!


No Cub fan would feel that a trip to Arizona was complete
without driving past HoHoKam Park in Mesa. HoHoKam is
the Spring Training site for the Cubs. I drove around the
entire park and couldn't find anyone that might be able to
open up the gates so that I could look around, but at least
it was interesting to see even if the team is playing badly
back home in Chicago.


There was a pretty good view of the field from past the
outfield fence.


At the entrance to the field there were round batting circles
for each of the players that have had their numbers retired
by the team...including my favorite, Ryne Sandberg.


We drove to Chandler and took a look at the condo I used to
rent. Surprisingly, very little had changed in almost 14 years!


One of my favorite flowers is the Bougainvilla. The state Department
of Transportation has chosen to use it on the sides of many of its
freeways. It brings a lot of color to an otherwise tan landscape.