Cycling Paradise in Grand Junction, Co (Lotsa Pics)

[spot]

Went to visit my mom and dad during the kiddos spring break, and decided to take my bike…I’m always jonesin’ for it when I’m there due to the fantastic scenery and roads for cycling. They live just north of the Colorado National Monument (their house is exactly 2 miles from the east entrance just off of South Camp road for those of you who know the area). I could blast from their house and be on a long climb minutes from leaving their house, in some of the most fantastic scenery. You can also do an entire loop by going in either the east or west entrance, and then going out the other one…the entire road through the Monument is 22 miles long. Lots of great climbing, but nothing very steep…easily sat and spun in a 39x26 low gear. Was kind of weird zinging down roads at 30mph with a monstrous void just a few feet off the road…had to remind myself to concentrate on staying on the road and not watching the scenery, for fear that I might become a permanent part of said scenery. Anyway, took my camera on a couple rides into the Monument…hope you enjoy the shots.

The view at the west entrance…decided to snork down some gels and water before starting off…

Climbing up from the west entrance with the valley off to my left…just a hundred feet up or so,
and another 1800 or so to go!

The view of the road…excellent, smooth blacktop for riding.

Getting higher…entrance can be seen in the middle of the road in the center of the picture, along with the
winding road.

The road turns left around the cliffs, and then does a switchback and turns right. You can see
where the road goes as evidenced by the debris that fell when they made the road. The next pic
was taken just before getting to that part.

The views while riding were just fantastic.

My loyal steed and the road below. Most pics I took while riding, since I didn’t want to take any breaks
on the climbs. On this occasion, the wind near the visitor’s center was unreal, so I decided to call it
a day and just dawdle coming back down, snapping pics. This is about a mile below the visitor center.

Good view of the road just climbed, and the valley beyond. This would have been the perfect day
except for the 35+ mph winds I was running into.

I could get used to having this in my backyard…maybe mom and dad will let me move back in!

View from Artist’s Point on my first ride into the Monument, riding from the east entrance to here.
Was pretty surprised that I didn’t need to take a break on the long climbs, as the longest hills in SW
Ohio are about a 1/2 mile long.

The bike computer at Artist’s Point, and its estimate of total vertical ascent. Motion Based “Gravity”
claimed it was a bit more than this…it claims that doing the whole loop starting on South Camp is
almost 5,000’ of total climbing, while my GPS and the bike computer said it was about 3,000’.

Climbing to the east from Artist’s Point. It snowed the first day we got to Grand Junction, but
it rapidly got very nice after that. I was surprised how much cooler it was just 1800’ or so higher
than my parent’s house (their house is at 4850, while the high point of the Monument is at 6640’).

Heading to the east…there is a serious drop just off of the road!

Climbing up after entering the Monument at the east entrance. This side is a bit steeper than the
climb from the west entrance, but still an easy in-the-saddle climb.

This is just past the Devil’s Kitchen area near the east entrance…a good time to settle into a nice
rhythm and climb for another 5-6 miles.

Riding through a cathedral of rock…very cool!

Looking back over the road just climbed…Devil’s Kitchen is the rock formation at right center.

Looking down on one of the switchbacks. I think this is near the top of the Serpent’s Trail. The
hard part of the climb is just about over, as it flattens out dramatically near here.

One last pic. Nearing the top of the climb from the east entrance…once you get on top of the rocks,
the climb gets much easier…can put it into the big ring in a couple of spots and really go.

Anyway, that’s it…I had a blast riding in this incredible national treasure.

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[phx_willy]

Terrific photos, thanks for sharing!

[msuguy512]

I drove through there on my way to San Diego, I wanted to do some riding but was exhausted after 4 days straight of driving. Definately a nice area.

[Former_User]

Great pictures! I was there briefly this summer, and remembered looking at all the cyclists and wishing I could be riding, too. Glad the roads were nice and clear for you.

[maija]

When I first started cycling back in 2001 I rode there in the summer when my boyfriend at the time and I were visiting his family. It was beautiful riding but it was a killer riding up the monument! And it was hot at the bottom and freezing cold at the top. Great place for cycling though, brings back memories of that summer.

[jsmith]

Awesome photos - thanks for posting. Is there much of a cycling/triathlon/multisport community in Grand Junction?

[Wayne666]

I spent about 2 months there. Not a whole lot of options for road riding but what is there is pretty spectacular.

[Milano]

Ooooooooh… Me want… This is the kind of riding I dream about when pedaling on the backroads here in central Maine and ducking beer bottles, baseballs, and (most recently) a half-eaten burger tossed at me by rednecks from their trucks. I’m so jealous.

[dogmile]

I spent about 2 months there. Not a whole lot of options for road riding but what is there is pretty spectacular.

We had this discussion before. Yes there are plenty of other road riding options. I understand you don’t care for the area, that doesn’t make your statement about no other riding options true.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1879881;search_string=co%20rides-national%20monument;#1879881

[spot]

Thanks. Don’t really know about the tri scene. I went to a couple bike shops, and saw a grand total of one tri bike for sale, so that may say something. I did see one guy riding the Monument on his tri bike, though.

Spot

[spot]

Thanks, and thank you to everyone else who has said nice things about my photos!

Spot

[just_jack]

Great pictures … and as good as the road riding is, the mtn biking is even better. As far as tri goes, I don’t think there is much of a scene on the western slope.

[doug_in_co]

nice pics. I’ve camped in the Monument a half-dozen times and never pulled it together to ride the road, usually on our way to some canoe expedition.

the whole of the Grand valley is pretty good for riding… try the E. Orchard Mesa, near Palisade…
there are a couple of sprint tris, one in Gunnison, one at a state park on the river. I hope to do one this summer.

[Doug_MacLean]

Holy cow… that looks amazing. Boulder is great and I love it here, but I think I’ll be taking a little training trip out to Grand Junction this summer. It looks too awesome to pass up!

[spot]

Boulder is great…my parents used to live there before living out of their RV for a few years. I did the Boulder Oly 3 years running…awesome place for running and biking. Grand Junction is pretty as well, but in a different way than front range.

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[TBinMT]

That ride is a classic. I haven’t read everything on this thread, but the Monument ride is highlighted in the last race (I think) in the movie American Flyers. Check it out if you haven’t already. I did that ride for the first time on Tuesday, while on Spring Break. It was a perfect day for it: No wind. Another near-classic is in Moab: Dead Horse Point. I did that one for the first time too.

That area, like Moab, is actually much better for mountain biking. Many think Fruita may soon become the next Moab. I wouldn’t know since I don’t MTB much lately.

[spot]

I used to mtb quite a bit when I lived in Boise, but not so much since then…mostly all tri and road bike. There’s an mtb trail not too far from where I live in Ohio, but its a lot easier to just jump on the tri or road bike straight from the house rather than have to load up a bike to go for a ride.

Funny you should mention Dead Horse Point…in 1983 my parents and I car-camped there on a drive to the West Coast, and were nearly eaten alive by mosquitos…I kid you not, they were worse than anything I’d ever seen, including northern Minnesota, where they can get particularly nasty with all of the swamps.

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[feman]

That is one of my favorite rides - and great shots - my buddy Jeff and I did that on our way back from Moab - road riding not SLick rock painful riding!!!- The ride up - either way- if fun and the descents are a blast.

Thanks for the memories.

[Wayne666]

I spent about 2 months there. Not a whole lot of options for road riding but what is there is pretty spectacular.

We had this discussion before. Yes there are plenty of other road riding options. I understand you don’t care for the area, that doesn’t make your statement about no other riding options true.
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...%20monument;#1879881
I loved the area, just there temporarily for a clinical rotation is all. Furthermore, didn’t say there were no other riding options, I said they were limited. I guess it’s all relative, I was used to riding in an area where there were essentially endless options to ride since there were tons of country roads in most directions. To me, anyplace where you can name the options is limited

[dogmile]

Awesome photos - thanks for posting. Is there much of a cycling/triathlon/multisport community in Grand Junction?

Keeping in mind that there are only 120k people living in the whole valley, the running and mtn/road riding groups are ok sized. The week day roadie rides are usually about 30 or so and sometimes as big as 80. You can try and hang on Scott Mercier’s wheel or one of the kids from the college team if you have some great 1 minute power. The weekly trail run usually sees 20-30. Biggest running race draws about 500. Most of the tri scene is just mixed in with the single sporters. Probably only about 50-60 triathletes in the valley and about 15 that do ironman. Area is a little too blue collar to support a big tri scene. Bike shops are focused on road and mtn bikes. There is a local sprint and now an olympic this year though.