RV Travels: Weekly Wanderings #15 – Grand Junction
Our week in Grand Junction was relatively quiet. We arrived in Colorado on Friday coming from Moab. After two weeks in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks and almost four full months in the Southwest, I was ready for some alpine green!
On Saturday we headed to Colorado National Monument to scope out what photo opportunities we had. We quickly realized that it was a pretty small park. Turned out fine because the weather was not good, very overcast with rain several days so we only went back one additional day for sunset.
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Sunday was super exciting because I was finally going to meet my good online friends Esther and Jacob of Local Adventurer in real life. They had made their way west from Ohio, where they picked up the Airstream that they are currently traveling in, and we coordinated our meet-up in Grand Junction. They parked their trailer right behind us and we became neighbors!
After several hours of catching up on all things blogging, RV'ing and life we decided to head back to the Colorado National Monument for a sunset shoot as a group. We had scoped out Book Cliffs Viewpoint as a good candidate and the fours of us hung out and exchanged knowledge on blogging and photography as we enjoyed the not-so-spectacular sunset.
When the light faded we headed home and cooked dinner together – chicken sausages and rice from us, yummy Japanese curry cooked up by Jacob. Add wine, beer and apple cider and stir! The next morning Esther and Jacob said good-bye as they headed to Moab. We are going to try to meet up again in the summer when we are in Portland. Or maybe this fall in their hometown of Atlanta.
We were rained in Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday we took Jacob and Esther's advice and headed to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It was a 90-minute drive but after being stuck in the RV for two days, that was fine with us!
It was also our 12th national park since we started our adventures and I am continually impressed with the amazing parks that we have in this country. We've got an annual pass and we have now saved three times its value in park fees, and it is only April!
A big storm was forecasted so we decided to leave Grand Junction on Thursday heading to Fort Collins. We hit a lot of rain and snow in the Rockies at Vail Summit, but we are glad we got ahead of the bad weather.
We arrived in Fort Collins on Thursday late afternoon and it has been snowing/raining ever since. Luckily, Fort Collins is a far better spot for us to get snowed in as we have access to a lot of stores that allow us to stock-up for what's coming next: Grand Teton and Yellowstone (where there aren't a lot of stores!).
We hit Ikea (about 90 minutes south in Centennial) and a huge Asian market (in Aurora) as well as Trader Joe's to fill up the fridge and freezer (see what we've been eating while on the road). We were thrilled we got to eat at a Korean restaurant for lunch. The Denver area has quite a lot of Asian markets and restaurants, which was nice to see!
Friday night we had dinner with my aunt and uncle in the downtown Fort Collins area. It's really cute. Turns out, that Disney's Main Street USA was modeled after this downtown – who'd have thunk?
That's it for this week's adventures!
Trip details for this leg of our trip:
> Moab to Grand Junction: 107 miles
> Grand Junction to Fort Collins: 312 miles
RV misadventures this week:
> Water gauges on the whack still.
> Panel of lights near our sofa stopped working.
Current location:
Moved from Junction West RV Park in Grand Junction, Colorado on Thursday to the KOA Lakeside Resort, Fort Collins, Colorado.
So, what have you been up to?
It’s been 5 years since I’ve been to Yellowstone. We stayed at the yellow Yellowstone Hotel. It was so peaceful and quiet. There wasn’t any cell phone coverage or wifi until we got to Old Faithful. You will have to let us know if East Yellowstone has cell coverage and wifi now.
P.S. I did your survey.
Thanks Julie! I am expecting no wifi, the campground we are staying at says they don’t have any. And if its like the National Parks in Utah, there is no cell service. I am preparing myself now not to have it! Thanks for completing the survey!
I love Colorado. It is so beautiful and so clean there.