Tag Archive for: Top Day trips from Grand Junction Colorado

North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Day Trips from Grand Junction: North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

I’ve read a few places that claim the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is the least visited National Park. It’s not because it lacks facilities and features like camping and hiking and an astounding 2000’ deep canyon. I think it’s because it’s located a little off the beaten path. Not along a major Interstate highway. To go to the main South Rim Visitor Center, you enter from Montrose and get access to the west side of the river.

Drive to the North Rim Ranger Station

West Elk Loop Scenic and Historic Byway Map

click to enlarge

To access the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, like we did for this post, you take a different route to reach the north and east side of the canyon. From Grand Junction, it’s about a 2-hour drive to the North Rim. From town, go south on CR-50 to Delta, east on 92 to Hotchkiss. Continue on CR-92 south to Crawford. This is part of the West Elk Loop Scenic and Historic Byway.

Use your mapping software to get you to the North Rim Ranger Station. The paved road turns into gravel for the last 6 miles or so, but it’s very manageable in any vehicle. Download any hiking trail maps because you most likely will not have cell service in this area.

Exclamation Point Hike

We parked at the Ranger Station and took the Vista Trail to Exclamation Point and back. The hike took us through an open meadow with so many flowers, then patches of trees that offered us some shade. We continue to the end, a cliffside overlook that looks down on the Gunnison River 2700’ feet below us. It was absolutely amazing. One of my top 5 best hikes so far.

We went in mid-May so the wildflowers were in bloom. The temperature was comfortable in the 70’s. The trail is listed as easy but there are a couple challenges where you need to pay close attention to your footing. Mostly sandy or gravel trails, sometimes rocky, but not much. Wear hiking boots/shoes if you have them. Hiking poles may come in handy, but we don’t have any and did just fine.

We hike at a leisurely pace and stop frequently to just look around and soak it all in. We typically stop at the end for a snack before heading back. This trail is 2.9 miles out and back with a 344 ft elevation gain and it took us about an hour and 45 minutes to complete it. The All Trails apps says average time is one hour 10 minutes.

Vista Trail flowers and meadow

North Rim Exclamation Point view to Gunnison River

Vista Trail to Exclamation Point

Me at the Overlook before we reached Exclamation Point

More to see

From the North Rim Ranger Station you can drive south along the canyon rim for more overlooks and hiking trails. There is a campground on the North Rim.

You need a permit to hike down to the river’s edge and some extreme skills to handle the elevation change and steep slopes.

You can read more about the main Visitor Center and the South Rim Black Canyon of the Gunnison on my Top Day Trips from Grand Junction post.

Amazing Views on CR-92 South of Crawford, CO

Because we first stopped at the Crawford State Park Visitor Center, we got some excellent advice from the volunteers working that day. They recommended, instead of driving back to GJ the way we came, to continue south on CR-92 following the Gunnison River canyon and take Hwy 50 west into Montrose and back to Grand Junction. Because we have a decorative sign in our home that says, “always take the scenic route”, we did just that! Boy was that stunning! So many overlooks along the road, even some rumble strips to remind drivers to keep their eyes on the road. You can read my post about the Crawford State Park.

There were so many aspen trees. We plan to go back in the fall because we anticipate this to be a great place to see the fall colors. At their suggestion, we also stopped at Hermits Rest Vista. So thankful we did. More amazing views of the nearby mountains and the Gunnison River far below. We will bring friends to this spot when they come for a visit!

Gunnison River from Hwy 92 near Hermits Rest Vista

Move to Grand Junction, we’ve been waiting for you!

If you are considering moving to Grand Junction, please give me a call. I’d love to explain your housing options and show you round Grand Junction, Fruita, and Palisade.

PAUL ASPELIN, your Grand Junction Real Estate Expert
REALTOR®, GRI, SRES®, CNE
Text/Call (612) 306-9558

Connect with me on LinkedIn or send me an email.
Serving Mesa County and the Grand Valley of Colorado.

by Paul Aspelin, REALTOR

Local or Nearby Attractions

Crawford State Park Day Trip from Grand Junction

Day Trips from Grand Junction: Crawford State Park

I highly recommend you take a day trip to explore Crawford State Park. It’s about 75 miles SE of Grand Junction. Crawford is on the West Elk Loop, a Scenic and Historic Byway. (See map at the end of this post.) It takes about 1.5 hours to get there via Delta and Hotchkiss. It sits at 6600’ elevation so it’s a great place to escape to when Grand Junction summers get hot. We will definitely go back and do some fishing. Maybe rent a boat or jet ski too!

We have a Colorado State Park Pass. We got our pass when we renewed our license tabs for our Toyota Tacoma. It’s less expensive to get your state park pass with your car tabs.

We learned something new that day too. When we entered, the Visitor Center Park Ranger gave us a red sleeve to put our Vehicle Registration Card into and we were told to place it on the dashboard, Registration side face down to protect our privacy. This lets the Rangers know we have paid for a pass. They can also look up our license plate number. There is not a “park pass” to display in your car window or sticker for your vehicle.

Visitor Center

There are three campgrounds in Crawford State Park along the north and east sides of Crawford Reservoir and three boat launches. We toured the North Shore Day Use section and then went to the Visitor Center. We sat in the picnic area to watch the people boating and fishing. Tubers were being towed behind ski boats, we saw some wake borders and others using stand up paddle boards (SUPs). We went in May just to see what the park has to offer. I am sure this is a very popular spot as the weather warms up. An excellent recreational and boating area for the locals in the area and everyone with a Colorado State Park Pass! Crawford Reservoir is the main attraction of the Crawford State Park. Scuba divers are welcome here too!

Fishing Crawford Reservoir

Crawford State Park shoreline of Crawford Reservoir near the Visitor Center

There were lots of people fishing from shore or fishing from kayaks and boats. While at the picnic area an older couple came down to fish from the shore near us. We asked what he was fishing for, and he said he catches some very large perch from the lake. Best he’s ever had. He doesn’t like fishing for trout here because they are farm raised (stocked) vs wild trout. The meat is white and not as good as wild trout’s red meat. Good to know! I haven’t gotten my Colorado Fishing License yet.

A winter visit to the park would provide opportunities for ice fishing and Nordic (cross-country) skiing. This would be a great spot for waterfowl hunting as well.

Trails at Crawford State Park

There are a limited number of trails along the 400-acre reservoir. We drove to Iron Creek Campground and had a picnic lunch near the boat launch. From here you can take a trail to the west side of the lake that leads to another overlook and day use area. You can take Black Canyon Road to the west side. This is the road we took to get to the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Lodging

If you want more than a day trip, there are several unique lodges, a hotel and an inn in the town of Crawford in addition to the three campgrounds in Crawford State Park. The Last Frontier Lodge sites up high on the north side of the lake and I imagine would have some spectacular views of the Elk Mountains to the east.

It’s a small state park, 337 acres, but offers some excellent options and, of course, exceptional views. I bet it’s a popular place come elk hunting season too.

An Amazing Stretch of Road South of Crawford, CO

Gunnison River view from CR-92 south of Crawford State Park

We got some excellent advice from the volunteers working that day at the Visitor Center. Instead of driving back to GJ the way we came, we drove south on CR-92 following the Gunnison River canyon. It was stunning! You can read more about this section of our trip on my post about the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Taking this route, you drive along the top of the Blue Mesa Dam to cross the Gunnison River. This is in the Curecanti National Recreation Area. It also gives access to the very popular Blue Mesa Reservoir. Once over the river, you take CR-50 West through Cimarron and over the Cerro Summit at 8042’ and on to Montrose, then Grand Junction. Very pretty scenery, but then again, all of Colorado is scenic!

I have several other posts about day trips from Grand Junction, check them out! Grand Junction makes an exceptional base camp for you to experience this amazing region of the country. We love living in Grand Junction!

Take the Scenic Route and to Move to Grand Junction!

Paul Aspelin sitting on a bench in Crawford State Park in front of the Crawford Reservoir

Paul Aspelin in Crawford State Park in front of the Crawford Reservoir.

If you are considering moving to Grand Junction, please give me a call. I’d love show you round Grand Junction, Fruita, and Palisade.

PAUL ASPELIN, your Grand Junction Real Estate Expert
REALTOR®, GRI, SRES®, CNE
Text/Call (612) 306-9558

Connect with me on LinkedIn or send me an email.
Serving Mesa County and the Grand Valley of Colorado.

West Elk Loop Scenic and Historic Byway Map

West Elk Loop Brochure Cover

We have referenced this map for several trips. We have been to Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Aspen, Redstone, Marble, over the stunning McClure Pass (ask to see one of my favorite pictures from the pass), Paonia, Hotchkiss, Crawford, and Gunnison. We took Kebler Pass in August (gravel road not open in winter) to Crested Butte and stayed in Mount Crested Butte. We have also been to the North and South rims of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

The Fruita Visitor Center has the best selection of brochures and information for things to do in Grand Junction, Fruita, Palisade, Mesa County and the entire state of Colorado and eastern Utah. We picked this one up there and have had it in the car with us on several trips. See cover on the right.

by Paul Aspelin, REALTOR

Local or Nearby Attractions

Day Trips from Grand Junction: Goblin Valley State Park in Utah

Looking for more day trips from Grand Junction? Consider Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. It’s about 2.25 hours west of Grand Junction. I published a post called Day Trips from Grand Junction CO that has more ideas. You can read it next if you haven’t read it already. I’ll be posting more day trips in the future too!

We like taking day trips from Grand Junction and we did this one on a Saturday in May. It was about 85 degrees and sunny. A great time of the year to hike and be outdoors.

What to know about Goblin Valley State Park in Utah before you go

GETTING IN AND PARKING

The park is small, and it gets busy. They don’t offer official timed entry management like at Arches National Park, so you can’t reserve an entrance time in advance. We arrived on a Saturday at about 9:30am and waited in line behind 2-3 cars to get in. We went right to the Valley of the Goblins parking lot and there were about 5 spots left. The park entrance waiting line started to build by 10am and cars were told to wait. They would be let in after current visitors left. The line was long. We ran into a couple on a hike later. They waited in line for an hour before giving up and choosing a hike outside of the state park and come back later in the day.

PARKING PASS

They want you to get the pass online ahead of your visit to speed things up when you enter. When you do, the pass is good for that day and until 10pm the following day. We bought ours the night before we left. If you wait to do it online when you get to the area, you may not have internet service, we didn’t.

RESEARCH THE AREA

Since the park is relatively small, I recommend you research other attractions in the San Rafael Swell area before you go. There is a lot to see in this beautiful area of Utah. Goblin Valley State Park info.

Goblin Valley State Park Experience

We planned for just one day in this beautiful and unique area. Once we got the park map, we went straight to the Valley of the Goblins and parked there by the big pavilion. The parking lot overlooks the Goblins. We walked down several flights of stairs to get down and walk around among them. That was very cool. An open area to roam. After about 30 minutes of that, we headed out. We stopped at the entrance because that’s where the Gift Shop is but it was closed. I think they were short staffed because the gift shop was open when we entered. We should have gone in then.

Little Wild Horse Canyon – Our first slot canyon experience

This hike was very impressive! According to AllTrails map app, the loop trail is 8.1 miles through two canyons. We read about them and watched some YouTube videos. We knew we couldn’t do the full 8 miles, too much for us. So, we chose the Little Wild Horse Canyon side of the loop. It starts out wide then narrows, the smallest section was about 5 inches at the ground and about shoulder width at your shoulders. Sometimes we turned sideways to continue.

There were a few spots to “scramble” or climb over large rocks. Nothing too strenuous for us beginners. It was crowded during the time we went. The parking lot was full. We knew we would stop and turn around when we hit the spot of the 6-8ft “dryfall” because we didn’t feel we could climb back up once we went down. However, we turned around before that because it was just too crowded and hard to pass people coming the other way in such a small space. We went about 1.3 miles on the trail before we turned around and we thought it was fantastic for our first time in a slot canyon. Amazing beauty. This canyon can experience a flash flood if there has been rain up stream, so be aware.

Little Wild Horse Slot Canyon narrow bath between walls of rock

It got much narrower than this but we were so overwhelmed we didn’t take enough pictures. We were living in the moment!

Temple Mountain Wash Pictograph Panel

Just off the side of the road we saw some of the largest prehistoric painted figures in Utah. The sign near the panel in the San Rafael Swell explains that the featured pictographs were created by early inhabitants during the Archaic Period (8000 to 2000 BC) and later by the Fremont culture (300 to 1300 AD). It’s amazing that they are still around for us to see! Pictographs are wall paintings done with pigments; petroglyphs are wall carvings, both are commonly called rock art. We are just learning the difference too!

After this, we pulled into one of the campgrounds nearby and had a picnic lunch under the shade of a tree. There are no services in the immediate area for food, so we packed a cooler with snacks for lunch.

Wild Horse Window

Our last short hike was the Wild Horse Window. Technically it’s accessed from within Goblin Valley State Park boundaries, near the main entrance sign, but the trailhead was hard to find. Our GPS wasn’t working because we had no internet connection. We finally found it after wandering back behind a camping area. I’m glad we persisted because it was amazing! We met a very nice couple from Denver who was just starting the hike when we were, so we hiked together. We had a great time chatting and wayfinding with them on the trail. We only saw two other couples in the 2 or so hours we were there!

The AllTrails app says it’s 1.8 miles out-and-back but our trip was 2.3 miles. The app said it takes 51 minutes on average; it took us 1.5 hours. It was sandy, rocky or you were walking on slanted slickrock. We took our time. Thankful for our supportive hiking books as it was rough on the ankles. It wasn’t technical, just had to watch your step. Hiking poles would have made it easier, but we don’t have those yet. Elevation gain was about 384 ft. Uphill there, downhill back. I was thankful there were many cairns to follow, especially over the slick rock because you didn’t have footprints to follow and couldn’t exactly tell where to go. Cairns (pronounced Karens) are stacks of rocks used for marking trails.

We were treated to a spectacular view at the end. Two natural bridges that are formed from wind and erosion. One had a hole in the top. The opening was probably 50’ wide and 50’ tall with moss growing in a few spots. We say more pictographs in the “cave”. We were thankful for the coolness of the shade. We had a snack and took it all in then hiked back to the truck. We were glad we did this one second because these 2.3 miles felt much more strenuous than the first 2.6 miles we hiked in the slot canyon. It was listed as “moderately challenging” and it sure felt like it.

Hiking back from Wild Horse Window Natural Bridge over slickrock following piles of rock to mark the trail

Hiking back from Wild Horse Window Natural Bridge over slickrock following piles of rock that marks the trail

One Final Stop for Dinner in Green River, Utah

After our hiking in this beautiful San Rafael Reef area, the next city on our way back was Green River, so we stopped there for dinner. After that, the next closest city with services is Fruita, CO! A lot of the restaurants and business in Green River are boarded up. They must be struggling as a small rural community. We found Tamarisk Restaurant overlooking the Green River. They have been in business since 1979, and I know why. The food and service were outstanding! We got there around 5-6pm, before the dinner rush. There were 20 people in the waiting area when we left. I highly recommend this place to eat. There weren’t many other cafes or restaurants, there was a sub shop. After a long day of hiking and being outdoors, we just wanted a cool place out of the sun to dine and relax a bit before the 90-minute drive home. We loved it.

I love that we can do day trips from Grand Junction CO like this. We left about 7:30am and were home about 8pm to sleep in our own bed. There are so many amazing places to see within 2 hours of Grand Junction, in all directions!

If you are considering living in Grand Junction, moving here from another state, please reach out to me. I’d be happy to show you around when you come to town to “check it out”.

Picnic in campground under the shade of a tree

We ate a picnic lunch in a campground under the shade of a tree

Move to Grand Junction… we’ve been waiting for you!

Text/Call 612-306-9558

PAUL ASPELIN, REALTOR®
GRI, SRES®, CNE

Grand Junction Real Estate Expert
Connect with me on LinkedIn or send me an email.
Learn more about my experience and how I serve my clients

by Paul Aspelin, REALTOR

Grand Junction, Local or Nearby Attractions, Relocating to Grand Junction

Top Day Trips from Grand Junction, Colorado

Use this area as a base camp to experience the top day trips from Grand Junction Colorado. When you visit Grand Junction, you’ll find so many wonderful things to do and see in the Grand Valley. It would be a challenge to list them all from here. Instead, I’d like to share some of the day trips from Grand Junction, Colorado that I have done with family and friends and would go again in a heartbeat. I include some tips and insights for each location.

I will warn you, cell service is spotty in this region, so be sure to download Google maps, bring a paper map, or know where you are going. And always pack snacks and plenty of water to drink. Read my post about avoiding altitude sickness if this is your first time at elevations of 5,000-10,000 feet. We took some of these top day trips from Grand Junction Colorado before we moved to the area and wouldn’t hesitate to go back with friends and family that visit.

ATVing can get messy on Moab, UT, especially when you ride the day after it snows!

Moab, Utah

Great for mountain biking, ATVing, “jeeping”, yes, that’s a thing in Moab. Exceptional trails for all sorts of outdoor activities. Plus, access to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. We’ve stayed in Moab twice now for Thanksgiving to use the ATV trails. Once we rode on a friend’s ATV and the second time, we did a full day rental with a trailer. It was expensive, but worth it, we had so much fun on the trails. One of our favorite restaurants there is Pasta Jay’s, exceptional Italian food! Check out the Corona Arch hike, the petroglyphs along “wall street” as the local climbers refer to it, and the many dinosaur track locations. The town has great shopping and a very laid-back vibe with an array of off-road vehicles lining the streets. There is always something to do and see in Moab! We really enjoyed seeing real dinosaur tracks just west of Moab.

Dinosaur National Monument

Dinosaur bones at Dinosaur National Park

Drive 2 hours north to see a pile of actual dinosaur bones still intact from inside the museum that was built around it. It’s pretty cool. The bones traveled down a river, and many came to a final resting place together. I have been to the museum and am planning to go back to hike the trails and see more fossils in the area. We stopped here on a drive back to Minnesota and it didn’t disappoint. On that trip we also hit nearby Flaming Gorge on our drive north, a beautiful area too! This route helped us avoid the I-70 closure due to a forest fire in Glenwood Canyon.

Telluride

2.5 hours south, Telluride is known for its winter skiing and snowboarding, but it’s an exceptional day trip for summer activities like hiking, biking, shopping, concerts and more. Standing on the street and looking at the town feels majestic with the towering mountains surrounding you.

View of Telluride from the Gondola

In Telluride, you can ride the gondola in town to the top of the mountain, for free, and onward to Mountain Village. Our first time there was in November and my wife said, “If there was such a thing as the North Pole, its Mountain Village”.

You’ll find plenty of shopping and dining at the foot of the ski mountain and in the downtown area of Telluride. While enjoying the scenery from the gondola, look for the tiny runway at the Telluride airport. Don’t know how those planes can take off and get high enough before they run out of runway at the end of the cliff! There isn’t any specific parking for the gondola, but you can hunt for a spot on the street or parking ramp and walk to the entrance. There is just something magical about a visit to Telluride any time of year.

Ouray and Silverton

Ouray is pronounced (yur-ay). These are beautiful mountain towns in the San Juan Mountains with so much history and allure. It takes 2 hours to get to Ouray and then you can take the famous “million dollar highway” to Silverton. A scary, but beautiful road. I don’t recommend driving it in the winter with its many 15 mph hairpin curves and lack of guardrails. Avalanches kept knocking down the guardrails and they got tired of replacing them, so they just don’t have any. And the shoulder is about 10 inches until the 1000-foot drop off, no kidding! It’s an adventure just to drive that stretch of highway.

Ouray at the “Switzerland of America” sign

Ouray, also referred to as the “Switzerland of America” offers an incredible quaint, historic mountain town experience with views you won’t soon forget. While in town, enjoy a soak at one of the local hot springs, or take a short hike to see the Box Canyon Waterfall, or just enjoy watching the ice climbers in the winter. Be prepared to be amazed.

Continue your scenic journey South, 24 miles to Silverton, which offers great shopping, dining, breweries, and lots of trails. Be warned, there is a tourist sightseeing train that travels between Durango and Silverton which can make for extended wait times at some restaurants depending on the timing of its arrival. We ate at the Lacey Rose Saloon located in the Grand Imperial Hotel in Silverton. The atmosphere was 100% Old West! Exactly what we came to experience. We enjoyed a great lunch listening to a live ragtime piano player and found out there was still a bullet in the woodwork behind the bar from a prior “shootout”. You can literally feel the Old West and mining history as you stroll the main street.

Snowshoeing on the Mesa

Grand Mesa

The world’s largest flat-top mountain is just 45 minutes from Grand Junction. There are 300+ lakes with miles and miles of hiking, ATV, snowmobiling, and cross-country ski trails. You can ski at Powderhorn Mountain Resort with much shorter wait times for the chair lifts. We attended their Octoberfest celebration with German food and beer while we were driving through looking at the stunning fall leaves. On the Grand Mesa, there are rental cabins, lodges, and campgrounds available for overnight stays. Be warned, the visitor center on the main road across “the Mesa” isn’t open on the weekends. In fact, we’ve been up there a dozen times and have yet to set foot inside the visitor center. Oh, and using the bathroom spurred my post about what I learned in the first 3 months of living in Grand Junction, always have toilet paper in your car as rest stops, pit toilets and visitor centers are often out of toilet paper!

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park view from the top. Photo by Emma Aspelin

Very picturesque just 1.5 hours SE of Grand Junction. You drive through Delta and Montrose, cute small towns to get to the Gunnison River gorge and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Here’s how the National Park Service describes it… “Big enough to be overwhelming, still intimate enough to feel the pulse of time, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park exposes you to some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rock, and craggiest spires in North America. With two million years to work, the Gunnison River, along with the forces of weathering, has sculpted this vertical wilderness of rock, water, and sky.” We were impressed. We stopped here on our way back from a trip to Ouray.

Read my post about our visit and awesome hike in the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Glenwood Springs Hot Springs

If you drive East on I-70 right to Iron Mountain Hot Springs from Grand Junction, it’s about an hour and 20 minutes. However, our first time there we went onto the Mesa first to do some snowshoeing near Mesa Lakes Lodge and then drove to Glenwood Springs specifically to soak in the hot springs. Iron Mountain Hot Springs offers a 3-hour soaking “appointment” and that was just the right amount of time. They have a changing room with showers and lockers. We spent time in pretty much every pool they offered with a range of temperatures from 96-108 degrees. It was our first hot spring experience. It’s right next to I-70 so there was a little road noise. But you also viewed the Colorado River, so that was nice. We watched the sun set over the mountain. There’s another hot spring there too, Glenwood Hot Springs, also along the river and the interstate. We will be checking out other hot springs in Colorado, but this is definitely a great option for a day trip from Grand Junction.

For more Day Trip ideas, use the search box on the right to search for “day trips from Grand Junction”. I have made many more posts since this one of various places to go and sites to see!

Care for Colorado Leave No Trace Principles

https://www.colorado.com/articles/leave-no-trace-care-colorado The Care for Colorado Leave No Trace Principles were created in partnership between the Colorado Tourism Office and the Leave No Trace organization to address recreation-related impacts in Colorado. Read their tips of what to know before you go, sticking to the trails, and other topics like trash, fire and wildlife.

Living in Grand Junction

If you fly into the Grand Junction airport to visit Mesa County, let me know. I’d love to share what it’s like to move to Grand Junction AND living in Grand Junction now as a full-time resident. We relocated to the area in 2023. As a licensed REALTOR® I can show you some properties while you are here too! Read my posts about moving to Grand Junction, Fruita, or Palisade. Ask me about any town in Mesa County!

Read the Two Day Itinerary for Grand Junction Visit post for more ideas or Things to Do in Grand Junction: Easy Hikes.

Happy travels!