August 24 – September 6, 2025
After a quick week in Walsenburg, we made our way northwest, almost into Utah, to the town of Fruita, Colorado, just west of Grand Junction, for the next two weeks on our Escaping the Corn Sweat Summer 2025 Tour. But before we got there, we made a stop in nearby Rifle. Read on for more!
Rifle Falls State Park
We took off from the AirBnB just before 8:30, stopping for coffee, gas then Christy’s to say our good-byes, then we were on the road.
Rifle, Colorado, is about 5 hours from Walsenburg. The route took us northwest through Westcliffe, Cotopaxi, Howard, Salida, Buena Vista and north to Interstate 70, then west through some wonderful scenery as we passed through Glenwood Canyon, following the Colorado River along the way.
Soon after passing through Glenwood Springs, we hit New Castle and exited the freeway. We continued northwest for about 30 minutes as the skies opened up and we were dumped on all the way up to Rifle Falls State Park.
We stopped at the ranger station just off the road and paid the $10 fee to get in. We were directed straight ahead and just past the campsites to a parking lot with a few cars sitting in the rain. There was a road that continued beyond the lot but it was gated off, indicating foot traffic only from that point.
We decided to stay put for a bit to see if the rain would ease up. It did a little, so Ash and I jumped out to see if we could get an idea of how far beyond the gate the actual falls were. As we approached the barrier, the sound of the falls grew loud and began to drown out the sound of the rain. Sure enough, we passed the gate and turned a corner and the falls were right there.
Ash and I walked past and around the trio of cascades, just to get a lay of the land before I went back to get Brandy. We headed back to the truck and told her she should come. She put on a sweatshirt and hopped out, and we were quickly on our way. We headed back to the falls and took some pictures. We scooted around the falls to the left and found some stairs up to a landing behind one of the falls where we got a great view out to the landing pool where the falls dump into.
We left the falls and took a back trail to the parking lot passing by some pretty neat caves, one of which Ash REALLY wanted to go into. I could have gone in to the cave with him, but would have had to crawl in. In the rain, with Brandy waiting, that was not in the cards for the day so we left and went back to the truck in short order.
Pictures from Rifle Falls State Park are on the Photo Diary.
We made our way back south to I-70 and hopped back on for the last hour-ish drive from Rifle through Grand Junction and in to Fruita.
We got to our SUPER CUTE AirBnB where the hosts had converted the garage to a neat little rec room with a pool table and a large TV on the wall.
This was, far and away, the most comfortable stop on our 2025 Summer Tour.
Two Weeks in Fruita
The first week in Fruita was more of the same. I, set up in the aforementioned garage conversion, worked while Brandy did so from the dining room table. Having a four day weekend ahead of me, Thursday couldn’t come soon enough.
Two of those four days, I walked to a nearby coffee shop, Bestslope Coffee Co, Brandy joining me on one of those days.
After work on Thursday, we headed to a nearby thrift shop for a quick run-through, then we headed in to nearby Grand Junction to their Goodwill store where we did MORE shopping (me, actually coming out of it with a couple of new-to-me shirts, perfect for our upcoming trip to Mexico) then on to the weekly market held in downtown Grand Junction, held Thursdays from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm.
We pulled into a parking garage near the market where the 8 foot, 2 inch height clearance gave me hope that we would be able to pull Clyde in and park comfortably. While he did fit, height-wise, the corners and spaces in the parking garage were SO tight that it made for a nerve-wracking experience. Pulling around full-size pickups that were even smaller than mine and the tight corners, I wasn’t sure we’d make it out without a little rubbing somewhere. Finally, we found a spot on the second level of the garage with an empty spot on one side giving me plenty of room to pull in. It still took several attempts to straighten out as the approach into the spot was still very tight.
After parking and making our way down, through a breezeway and into the market, we strolled up and down and, for some reason, I wore out VERY fast. My body started aching, my feet started hurting, and it felt like I was back in my heaviest days.
We walked up three blocks, then down five then up half a block to a nearby brewery for a quick dinner at The Rockslide Brew Pub after which we headed back to the truck for our escape from the tight confines of the garage for ants. Soon we were back at the AirBnB and socked in for the night.
Friday at the Museums
Friday, having the day off while Brandy worked, I figured it’d be a perfect opportunity to go to the nearby museums as that’s not really her speed.
I started with a quick, couple-minute drive to the Dinosaur Journey Museum.
Fruita is very proud of its dinosaur legacy, having a rick deposit of Jurassic-era fossils and the town’s link to the Morrison Formation. I mean, look at the town’s welcome tower:
The museum, for all it was hyped up to be, fell a tad short of the expectations I had for it. Please, do not get me wrong, I thought it was an informative, interesting and entertaining visit, but I felt the entire aesthetic was a little dated, some of the displays could have used some updates, and just an overall modernization of the entire space. Money, I know.
Anyway, I walked in and immediately noticed that the museum shares the building with the Colorado Welcome Center, a small room tucked off to the left.
To the right though, is the gift shop for the museum. I was beckoned into the shop where I was told that their internet was down and that they would only be able to accept credit cards (seems a little backwards to me, cash doesn’t require internet to be processed, but I don’t know what they were doing on the back-end to process my credit card payment.) I paid my $10 admission and was directed in to the museum directly to my right.
I will spare you the excruciating details of the stroll through the museum, suffice it to say, it was, as mentioned previously, an entertaining and informative stroll. I was mindful to take plenty of video during this visit as I had every intention of stitching together a little video of my time in the museum.
After making the circuit a few times (once to enjoy it, once to snap pictures, and again to take video), I exited through the gift shop where I picked up a sticker and a 3XL t-shirt (which has become my new size!)
Aside from the video, I do have the pics from the visit in my usual location, in the Photo Diary.
Museum of the West
Twenty minutes or so east of Fruita in Grand Junction is the Museum of the West, sister museum to the Dinosaur Journey museum. This one though focused on, well, the history of the west… Covering everything from the ancestral tribes that occupied the land, through the colonization of the area by European settlers and the early days of the push west.
This museum offers a “special” add-on exhibit that, from what I can tell, is a rotating exhibit. Presently this exhibit features the legacy of the Ute peoples and specifically their leaders, such as Chief Ouray and Chief Ignacio.
As I stopped to pay my admission, I was told that I could get a combo ticket that would allow me access to the museum where I was AND the dinosaur museum. When I told them I’d just come from there, they asked if I had a receipt. I told them no, because their internet was down and they had no way of providing one. With that tidbit of information, they still gave me the combo which, as it turns out, was simply the sam price as just paying the admission here, except now I’d have access to the Cross Orchards Historic Site, a site that celebrates the agricultural significance of the area. This was lost on me though as I had no intention of visiting this site.
I paid my admission and got a wristband allowing me access to the special traveling exhibit which was behind a literal paywall. The Ute exhibit was mostly photographs with informational cards talking about the Ute people as they existed before the white man came and stole their land, and the early days of assimilation, how their children were forced into white-man schools and “brought out of savagery.”
There were a few other physical objects on display, such as textiles, baskets and such, but it was, by and large, a photographic exhibit.
I made my way around the small nook and back out into the main exhibit area where the celebration of the Native peoples continued. This portion was mostly physical object rather than photos. I was particularly stricken by the craftsmanship of these gloves.
As the exhibits continued, they focused more on the contributions of the settlers as they transformed the land to fit their needs, all the way up to the atomic age where I learned that uranium prospecting was a thing.
A small, one-room schoolhouse was on display as was a reconstruction of the Pastime Saloon. They also had an old fire wagon with a crank that allowed you to turn it and hear the siren as activated by the handle. I turned the handle one complete revolution and the Klaxon-style siren started wailing, and did not relent for what seemed like minutes. It was incredible that one turn of the handle could power the siren for that long.
Anyway, I made my way through the exhibits before finding myself back at the front entrance. Just beyond that was an elevator to the top of the Sterling T. Smith Educational Tower, a tall tower accessed by a staircase that wraps wrounbd the outside of the skeletal tower, or by an elevator accessed from the lobby of the museum. I elected to take the elvator up to the top, where I still had a short flight of stairs to climb before finding myself in the middle of a stunning 360° vista of Grand Junction and the surrounding areas. It was very windy at the top of the tower and there were nice, dark gray storm clouds brewing when I was at the top.
I took in the views of the Colorado National Monument mesa on one side and the Book Cliffs on the other. I was sure to take some video along the way…
…as well as the pictures that are… well, you know.
Colorado National Monument
Saturday, Brandy and I took a walk down the street to the coffee shop once again and waited patiently for the opening of the farmer’s market right across the street. Once the vendors were pretty much all set up, we headed over and strolled. It was a decently sized market, not as big as the one in Grand Junction from Thursday evening, but there were still a good number of vendors set up.
We picked up a few things then made our way back to the AirBnB where we picked up Ash and made the couple minute drive to the nearby Colorado National Monument.
We stopped at the tollbooth just off highway 340 and purchased a new America the Beautiful pass then made our way up, up and up the steep incline to the top of the plateau, spying some devastatingly beautiful scenery along the way.
We drove Rim Rock Drive along its entire 23 mile course, stopping at some overlooks to get pics and vids along the way. The other end of the road dumped us in Grand Junction where we took a little detour back to the Goodwill so Brandy could do a little more spending, then on back to the AirBnB for the night.
Sunday in Montrose
We got up the next morning with nothing specific planned, so we made the hour drive south on highway 50 into Montrose. The only items we went with intent were to have breakfast at Bluecorn and stopping at Coffee Trader for a Mexican Mocha. The rest was up in the air.
As Brandy still had money in the checking account, we made a stop at the Goodwill out there so she could try to get rid of it. Once more, we came out of this trip with a couple of items for me but most of it was more clothes for her already over-full suitcase.
The stop at Coffee Trader came after this run to Goodwill then we started back up highway 50 into nearby Delta where we pulled off and stopped at Sweitzer State Park. We paid the $10 state park day use fee then headed off to the namesake lake.
The lake is the main attraction of the park and has plenty of recreation available including fishing, swimming and boating. On this day, there were a handful of fast boats towing people (kids, mostly) in tubes. We found a picnic area on the opposite side of the lake with a few people already there. We pulled in, walked down to the water and sat for a bit, soaking in the sunshine and the overall vibes of the lake scene.
Once we’d had our fill, we hopped back in Clyde and headed back up to Fruita, stopping at Walgreens and City Market before heading back to the AirBnB where Ash was eagerly waiting for us. We had a quick, light dinner, did our drugs and called it a night before our next big adventure.
Moab and Arches National Park
This adventure warrants its own post, so head on over to that one and read all about our long, full day in Utah.
Final Week in Fruita
After we returned from Moab, it was pretty much business as usual for the rest of our stay in Fruita. We worked when scheduled, we stayed in for dinners and we spent our after-work hours packing, cleaning and just generally getting ready for our departure Saturday morning.
By the end of it, I’d say this was a pretty fantastic stop on the trip. I finally got to see one of the five National Parks in Utah (with another 2 (maybe three?) coming up,) we saw some pretty fun and fantastic things, and, to top it all off, the AirBnB where we stayed was fantastic- comfortable, spacious, and well-appointed.
The trip between Fruita and Fredonia very well warrant a post of its own, it was so adventure-packed. Continue on to my post about Moab and Arches National Park and see! (insert winky face emoji here.)
Otherwise, until Arizona, I leave you here.
-Phil