Mountain biking in Grand Junction and Fruita Colorado

DATE FRIDAY: 4/21/06
Decided to visit the Grand Junction and Fruita areas and check out the trails.

FIRST IMPRESSION:
Grand Junction is a bigger city than I thought. There is pretty much any store you could want there and a lot of traffic to go along with it. Drivers in Colorado are more anxious than those in Utah in general. Much of Grand Junction seems to sit in a bit of a hole (it is a valley afterall). The area near Clifton, in NE Grand Junction is a bit higher than the rest. Orchard Mesa area didn't seem to be much of a mesa at all. I guess it is higher than the Grand Junction area on the other side of the Colorado River. The Redlands area seemed to be off by itself, slightly outside of Grand Junction. Fruita has a lot of farm type areas with a few residential developments here and there. Both Grand Junction and Fruita seem to have quite a few trailer parks, probably more in Grand Junction. The eastern Clifton area seems pretty run-down. I stopped in at the Safeway at F Rd & 29 Rd. It was not crowded. There are a lot of old people walking their little dogs in all areas. People drive a little crazy and a few pulled out in front of me. Some of the roads have bike lanes.

Fruita - Kokopelli's Trailhead
Technically, it's just west of Fruita. Exit the I-70 freeway and there is the sign to Kokopelli's trailhead. Follow the road and then take a left onto a washboarded dirt road a short distance to the parking area. The parking area was very crowded in my opinion. Mostly with people mountain biking, there are people hanging out in the parking area, people riding, people getting back from rides. This is a very active spot for mountain biking and this was on a Friday. When I was there a truck pulled a trailer in with about 20 bikes on it and a couple vans along.

Grand Junction 18 Road
I decided to drive over to the 18 Road trailhead. This is a long drive on a very washboarded road. Most of the people driving this road drive it very fast. I was taking it slow, enjoying the scenery. As I'm driving in there are some cattle roaming around to the left. There are cars with mountain bikes going both directions on the rough dirt road. Seems to be another very popular spot for riding. I saw that the road was quite a few more miles to the end so I stopped, took some pictures and headed back. Heck I had driving all night and didn't have much energy. Enjoy the pictures below.