Grand Junction area

After leaving Fort Collins we headed down through Denver and then across 70 to the Grand Junction Area.

Highway 70 between Denver and Grand Junction is a testament to engineering skill, particularly the stretch from the Eisenhower tunnel through Glenwood Canyon. The Eisenhower tunnel is at 11,400 ft. and is drilled for about a mile straight through the base of a rock mountain. The Glenwood Canyon portion which follows is a very pretty, steep, narrow canyon with the Colorado River running through it. The 15 miles or so of highway that goes through it might as well be one long bridge as it is effectively attached to the rock cliff on one side or the other the whole way.

First stop was Glenwood springs at the end of Glenwood Canyon. This is a nice tourist town with a famous hot springs hotel and equidistant between Aspen and Vail ski resorts. It is also a place where people start off on backcountry horseback riding trips, whitewater rafting trips on the Colorado and various other fun pursuits. While there we went on a hike up to hanging lake, a pretty little lake that appears to just hang on the edge of a valley. Kind of like a natural infinity pool.

The next day we went on a 28 mile bike ride up Glenwood Canyon and back. It’s pretty cool they have a paved bike path the whole way from Glenwood Springs up to the end of Glenwood Canyon separate and slightly below the highway. It is from this bike path that you can appreciate what an engineering feat the highway really is. This was our favorite bike ride so far, even including the long ride on the beach we did in Oregon.

We then left Glenwood Springs and did a short one hour drive down to Parachute where my Uncle Bill lives. Bill retired in Parachute and was a great host! I’ve never gotten to know Uncle Bill much because he always lived in Colorado. So it was a special treat to be able to spend a few days with him. We really enjoyed the time we spent talking around the kitchen table, playing bocce ball on the court he built in his backyard, playing chess and the trip we took up to Grand Mesa one day. I think Bill may have thrown a couple of those games to encourage his nephew to return. It was a great visit, I hope to be able to do it again.

After leaving Uncle Bill’s we again traveled a short hour down to Grand Junction. Grand Junction got it’s name from the Colorado river which runs through it, originally called the Grand.

This town is somewhere to seriously consider if you are thinking of making a real estate investment. It is growing thanks to a heavy influx of retiree’s (prices are still cheap and healthcare is top notch). Additionally natural gas wells which are in the area have recently been developed and it is where people go for major services from all of eastern Colorado and Western Utah. People from hundreds of miles around come to Grand Junction for healthcare, significant purchases, etc. Additionally there is a college, Mesa College, which gains university status next year (this always encourages local business development) and the oil companies are starting development of facilities to extract oil from the extensive oil shale deposits in the area. They say there may be as much oil in the oil shale as there is in all of Saudi Arabia; however, it is much more expensive to extract. Thus development depends on price remaining high over the long term. In my opinion, on a % basis, real estate prices will do better here than in most area’s of the country over the next 5-10 years.

Grand Junction also borders the Colorado National Monument which is a bunch of red rock bluffs and formations cut into a Mesa. The monument is a harsh and beautiful area well worth a visit. We went hiking in Monument Canyon for a day. If you ask me the only reason this hasn’t been designated a national park is that it is relatively small (compared to Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc.) and that it’s name is non-descriptive and stupid. They should call it Redrock National Park or something similar.

Anyway we liked Glenwood Springs, Parachute and Grand Junction in that order but we liked Fort Collins, Couer D’alene and Anacortes even more. I would choose to live here over the Bay Area but Tracy probably wouldn’t and there didn’t seem to be any work in my field anyway. Few company headquarters are located here and almost no high tech. Most businesses are of the more stable type and don’t require a lot of financial modeling and planning. (pictures to be posted later when we have a better internet connection).