The Book Cliffs are a series of mountains and plateaus, consisting mainly of sandstone and other sedimentary rock, stretching some 200 miles across Colorado and Utah. Although they are not that far from Montrose, I have spent very little time there, and it's time to correct that situation.
This short trip will include exploring the Book Cliffs and the San Rafael Swell (more about that later). Fruita is the nearest town with a campground close to the east end of the Book Cliffs, where I decided to start. Incidentally, the Book Cliffs got their name from someone who thought they resembled books on a shelf. I can't say I really agree with that, but the name has stuck.
Fruita is an attractive town with a population of around 13,000 at the last census. Judging from the increase in residential housing in the area, I would guess it is significantly higher now. Very close to Grand Junction, Fruita serves as a "bedroom community' for many who work in Grand Junction. Further, being located on the banks of the Colorado River and having the Book Cliffs to the north, plus having Colorado National Monument and thousands of acres of public land nearby, the town is a magnet for outdoor enthusiasts. Hiking, biking, 4-wheeling, fishing, hunting and mountain biking are all popular here. In the winter, nearby Grand Mesa has a ski resort and lots of trails for cross country skiing, snow shoeing and snow mobiling.
On my first afternoon in Fruita, the current heat wave limited activities somewhat, at least for me. Most of the hikers I saw were hiking to the river, where swimming, paddle-boarding, rafting and fishing were the most popular events.
I did see a few hardy bikers rolling down from Colorado National Monument. With temps shown by the LRJ bouncing between 97 and 101 F, river activities made a lot more sense.
I stayed inside the LRJ and enjoyed the air conditioning while touring around the area, just too hot to get out and walk any distance. Of course, it's a dry heat...kind of like being in an oven. Some of the newer residential areas below the Monument appealed to me. Most had 3 or 4 car garages, a few even more, just to give you an idea. My favorite is shown below. It has a view of the Monument in one direction and the Colorado River and Book Cliffs in the other.
Later, I drove through some of Fruita's farm and ranch lands to begin exploring the Book Cliffs. I only had a short time before heading back to camp for dinner. The sunset that evening was pretty nice.
On Sunday, I left early and drove into Utah, getting off the freeway in an area called Westwater, which is where I planned to turn north toward another section of the Book Cliffs. Several canyons there are known to have both petroglyphs and pictographs, as well as inscriptions made by settlers as early as 1830. This area also has lots of wildlife, such as coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats and various raptors. Almost as soon as I left the interstate, a pronghorn appeared, followed soon after by a red-tailed hawk.
There were plenty of small birds, mostly unwilling to pose for me. One horned lark was more obliging.
It's a twenty mile drive from I-70 to the start of the canyons, but the drive was made pleasant by the spectacular scenery and an old abandoned cabin along the way.
Near the cabin are two "dugouts" possibly used for storage, such as a
root cellar. It's also possible they could have been living quarters
for some prospector. This area had lots of coal mines at one time, then
uranium mines in the 1950s, now a great many oil and gas wells are
scattered about.
I'll pick up the story of this trip at a later date.
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