Arriving A Day Early In Grand Junction, CO

 Grand Junction, CO

Delta Colorado in Delta County (a new county for us on this trip)

Grand Junction, CO a day early

We are ahead of schedule!  😁 I mentioned in the last post that we left Capital Reef early because we were sleeping in a parking lot.  We booked a 2nd night in Grand Junction and did the drive a day early.  We checked into the Home2 Suites Hilton and settled in.  We used the extra day in Grand Junction to explore the city more than we would have been able to and take a road trip to grab some extra counties in Western Colorado.  Grand Junction is a lot more happening than we thought it would be.  There is a great downtown with food and drink as well as DIY shops and bookstores.  We were a bit disappointed with their dog policies on patios.  We took Francis to a brewery and they asked that we tie him up outside so we left.  It seemed that this was the law even though the brewery didn't serve food.  Different than many places we have been to in the past.

We got great roasted chicken at Pollo Asado

I took a few cans to go from Monumental Beer Works (I didn't try to bring Francis to this one)

I turned Francis into Art in our room

We saw this Mountain Lion at Ridgway State Park in Ridgway CO

The State Park has a great nature trail

It overlooked a reservoir

This was our first Colorado State Park and it was great!

Public art in the Downtown area

They are big into mountain biking here

More public art

They are so sporty here they skate and bike at the same time!

Our road trip took us up to The Dallas Divide.  It was a really beautiful drive and we got 3 bonus counties we weren't counting on getting.  The Purple Counties are new this year.

We had planned on getting Mesa and Delta.

We have 2 more camping nights and 1 more hotel night until we land in Denver for a Month starting Sunday.  We are getting close and we are looking forward to settling down for a month.

Yesterday we were in Capitol Reef National Park.  Check it out here.