On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
cope
The last adventure on our itinerary was a raft trip on the Colorado. Ironically, this would be our most leisurely and tranquil outing of all. Because the section we floated is fairly flat and river volume in July is low, there were no death-defying rapids, no ten foot standing waves, no killer mid-rapid boulders to worry about. We slathered on the sunscreen, got into our respective craft and let the river take it where it chose.
This is the replacement picture from the Thursday post, but it’s too pretty not to include where everyone will see it, so I am sneaking it in here, too. ~WG
We put in at Riverbend Park in Pallisade, a few miles upstream from Grand Junction. My brother-in-law owns the raft above and the blue inflatable kayak know as a “duckie” was borrowed from a friend. A yellow duckie belonging to one of my brothers was the third vessel of our flotilla. Besides myself, the cast of characters included both my brothers, my brother-in-law and my grandson.
Here, one of my brothers and my grandson float along behind the three of us on the raft. The yellow duckie had been in storage for a period of time equal to or greater than twenty years. It did not hold air as well as one might like while trying to enjoy a leisurely float
My other brother started out in the raft with me and my brother-in-law. This is a view back upstream with another party and Grand Mesa in the background.
This is the one of the few bits of faster water we got to negotiate. You can see the yellow duckie starting to sag in the middle as air leaks out. My brother did appreciate the cooling balm of the river water, though.
Our daughter’s family owns a couple of kayaks and have used them quite a bit here in central Florida so my grandson felt pretty comfortable.
Here he is going through one of the riffles we enjoyed on the trip. The view is upstream toward the northeast and you can see The Book Cliffs on the left and cumulus building up over the mountains.
In this shot, Mt. Garfield of The Book Cliffs takes center stage. One thing I will appreciate about living in Grand Junction is the presence of physical landmarks. Mt. Garfield, The Book Cliffs, The Mesa, The Monument, one or more is almost always in view wherever you are in the valley. For me, it gives a physical sense of direction and connection to the land and feeling of being in a particular place.
To give a sense of how unthreatening the river was, this is a group of folks on paddle boards and the board on the right has a rather large dog standing on it. The Monument is the dark, thin strip that marks the lowest most horizon.
At this point, my brothers had switched places in the raft and yellow duckie. Again, The Mesa anchors the horizon, cumulus clouds building over the higher elevations while we sweated in the Sun down on the river.
We stopped for lunch about half way through our trip but I thought this would make a good image to end the post. As I learned in March of 1969 on a college raft trip through the Grand Canyon to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Powell’s epic first journey, food is an important part of any venture on the river. This repast didn’t quite do justice to the food gods but it sure tasted good. We pulled out at Las Colonias Park just above the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers.
I hope others have enjoyed these picture stories because I sure had fun putting them together. Who knows what adventures await once we move back to Junction?
Betty
What an enjoyable and relaxing return home to a beautiful place.
eclare
That looks like a wonderful trip!
WaterGirl
This has been a wonderful series, cope! And you put it together as you were preparing to move, wow.
Just a reminder that for a particular series of posts, you can click on the category that’s just under the title, and it will bring up the entire series.
HinTN
The west is just such a wonderful landscape. I’m sure you will enjoy your relocation. Thanks for this vicarious experience of your new ‘hood.
Almost Retired
Great series. We’re on our way to Moab to take advantage of our shiny new Golden Codger National Park Pass, or whatever it’s called. We’re extending our trip now to include the Grand Junction area. Thanks for the tip!
cope
@Almost Retired: Use the heck out of that pass, it’s a great deal. I was lucky enough to get mine when they were still $10.
Have a great trip.
P.S. I screwed up with my pics again, #4 is a repeat and doesn’t match the caption.
Miss Bianca
You’re making me miss the Western Slope something fierce, cope! Thanks for the photos!
eclare
@Miss Bianca: I thought you were on the Western Slope….
mvr
@Almost Retired: Like the name “Golden Codger Pass”. Going to steal it for my own personal use. Got mine recently and have mostly used it at Yellowstone so far.
mvr
@cope: I was trying to see the yellow duckie mentioned in the comment to that picture, but decided it must have deflated so far it sank.
Thanks for these photos! It was nice to get a good sense of what this float trip might be like. I drove to Moab last spring and stopped in Grand Junction and felt like the area was worth some more exploration. I did get out to flyfish a morning on the Gunnison and really enjoyed that. So I may well head out there some time!
Thanks again!
cope
@mvr: I botched posting the right picture for that caption. I sent the correct pic to WG, maybe she’ll have a chance to swap them out.
This is absolutely a great area for fishing. It’s a bit chilly these days but soon…
J R in WV
A friend and I did a rock-hounding trip to Colorado and Wyoming, with a very brief stop in Utah at the Dinosaur National Monument.
The Book Cliffs are a well known locale for concretions with wonderful barite crystals inside a very few of them. We didn’t actually reach the cliffs, and where the crystals are found is probably small proportion of those vasty precipices — wonderful country, tho !