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.
I expected to have made multiple OTR submissions now that we’ve been in Western Colorado for almost five months. I also expected to be born rich and good looking and that didn’t happen either. So it goes.
To recap, in late December of last year, we loaded up the car with the really valuable stuff and the dog and took off on a 2,200 mile drive to Western Colorado from Central Florida. This is just a sampler of the consequences (so far) of that momentous move.
1) The six day drive was mostly tedious but we did make our way down the west side of Vail Pass in some dicey conditions. After 33 years in Florida, it was a treat to experience actual winter again.
2) Our new home backs up on an arroyo with a view to the west of The Colorado National Monument.
3) Sunsets, moonsets, we have it all.
4) My computer desk looks out over the arroyo at the houses and sights beyond.
5) As the snow melted and the grass greened up down in the arroyo, some deer followed. The buck on the right has only half a rack.
6) Almost every day, I take our dog to play with one of my sister’s dogs at her house. They have an owl box installed, maintained and monitored by a local organization here in the Grand Valley.
7) The raven is my wife’s spirit animal (mine is probably the bear) and we put this on the stucco wall on our patio.
8) Several of these guys greeted us along the driveway to my other sister’s house one fine afternoon. Now that I think about it, maybe this is my spirit animal.
9) Peonies are my wife’s favorite plant. They don’t really grow well in Florida and four of these guys are the first things I planted when we got serious about the yard. This bloomed after about two weeks in the ground.
10) Grand Junction is within striking distance of beautiful mountains, deserts, canyons, rivers, forests, lakes and all sorts of natural beauty. Last week, my wife and I drove up Unaweep Canyon to the small town of Gateway. We passed two spectacular waterfalls along the way. There is a wonderful YouTube video of Unaweep waterfalls shot with a drone. It’s a nice way to spend 13 minutes.
CaseyL
Beautiful place to live!
You escaped from Hell and found (a) paradise.
(I’m not up super early; I’m on vacation in Europe, and it’s late morning here.)
Wag
Very nice to have you in the neighborhood. Welcome to Colorado!
sab
Very amazing photos. Also beautiful.
JPL
Congrats are your new home, and what an amazing view you have.
MomSense
Beautiful! I love peonies, too.
raven
Wowzer!
ColoradoGuy
Welcome to Colorado! The more the merrier!
Steve in the ATL
I love Colorado
Trivia Man
Nice moon set
I miss the wide open west, thanks the flavor of your new home
Betty
Looks like you found a lovely place to live.
OzarkHillbilly
Enjoy the new home sweet home.
cmorenc
My adult daughter, SIL and grandkids live in Grand Junction, and we are out there several times each year – in fact, I bought my season pass to Powderhorn (local ski area) for winter ’23-24. It is indeed a great place for folks liking the outdoors. Alas, for other reasons tying us to North Carolina (at least for now), it’s not feasible for us to completely uproot from NC and move to GJ.
Albatrossity
Gorgeous shots of some gorgeous country. Thanks!
Anyway
Congratz on the big move! Great pictures of a lovely part of the country. Thanks for sharing.
WaterGirl
Love your photos, and thanks for catching us up on the move. Blooming (happily!) 2 weeks after planting is a good sign.
Your photo #3 looks like it has to be a painting, not real. How lovely to be surrounded by all that beauty in nature.
mvr
Thanks for the update and photos.
I drove through Grand Junction in April last year and spent the night there, on the way to a conference in Moab. The town seemed charming and I was able to spend the next morning flyfishing along the Gunnison River. It was an absolutely beautiful morning and a calming thing to do. It is a long drive from here, but I do think of going back.
Thanks again!
pieceofpeace
Great shots, love the owl and stunning vistas.
Where are good places to visit for a Colorado vacation? Or to live?
Yutsano
Does Colorado have humidity? Asking for a friend…
Benjamin Franklin proposed the wild turkey for our national bird because they are clever and resourceful. Unfortunately they weren’t seen as dignified enough so the bald eagle won.I still think Ben was right.
StringOnAStick
Ah, seeing where I was born and spent my first 25 years; thanks. Recognised every location; you live close to my ancestral home and very close to a couple of my closest friends. I’m glad to hear you are happy in your new home!
cope
@pieceofpeace: I have always favored the western parts the state because you can head in any direction for almost any kind of natural beauty and because it is less crowded. We moved to FL from GJ over 33 years ago and this has been a wonderful homecoming.
@Yutsano: Grand Junction averages about 9-10 inches of precipitation a year so, no, not much humidity. In fact, the first big money we put into the place was an updated swamp (evaporative) cooler for the house. They are only effective when the RH is 50% or less and that is most of the time here. We do get the occasional thunderstorm and commensurate flash flooding but that is not common.
kindness
Is that the winter melt off run in that waterfall or is it like that year round? I ask because out here in CA our waterfalls are mostly spring time things.
cope
@kindness: They are seasonal. This year was an exceptionally snowy one up high and the melting season is still going on. The Colorado River, which flows through town, is very nasty looking right now.
Mr. Prosser
Welcome to town. Ignore most of the politics and enjoy the countryside. If you’re into archaeology of the area check us out at casgjchapter.org
cope
@Mr. Prosser: I am into archeology, thanks. My first career was as an oil field geologist working on wells throughout the Rockies. Any time I had off was spent wandering empty places looking for interesting things be they fossils, rocks, ruins or artifacts. I am also interested in astronomy and have been told that there is a local group for that as well.
Thanks for the kind welcome back.
Spanish Moss
So beautiful, thanks for sharing! I have only been to Colorado for a brief business trip. I will have to add it to my list of places for a future vacation.
Mr. Prosser
@cope: I almost forgot, since you posted two fine birds of the area check out audubongv.org also
cope
@Mr. Prosser: Will do, thanks. When I was visiting my sister here before we moved back, she turned me on to Merlin, the bird ID app. I’m listening to a quail calling out for attention down in the arroyo as I type this.
Miss Bianca
Peonies! You are making me miss Paonia – and indeed the whole Western Slope. Still entertain hopes that I’ll be able to shake loose of the central mountains here someday and head back there. Thanks for the photos
ETA: Someday, a pan-Colorado BJ meet-up. Wouldn’t that be sweet…