Palisade Basecamp RV, Palisade CO

I did not know a lot about this stop, just that it was close to Grand Junction CO, and on our way to Moab UT.  The road there was I-70 West through the high country first.  We passed by Copper Ski Resort but then we went through Glenwood Canyon , carved by the Colorado River and it was amazing!  How they built interstate highway through it is an engineering marvel.  Westbound side is elevated over the eastbound side for most of the canyon.  We stopped at one of the rest stops, fitted tightly into the canyon, yet easy for us to get off and back on.  Once we got through it, the road still followed the Colorado, the canyon opened and we got off at the entrance to Grand Valley. Apparently, we were camping in Wine (and peach) Valley! Our campground had a peach orchard and was right next to a winery.

Our site was right in the corner of the property, so we had great views onto Book Cliffs, which are called that because they resemble shelves of books. They are impressive, especially at sunset.

We decided to visit Colorado National Monument , which encompasses six canyons and over 32 square miles.  The best way to see it is to drive the Rim Rock Drive, so Tom decided to rent a slingshot, it’s basically a low clearance convertible from aptly named Adrenaline Driven Adventures . Once you get to the north park entrance, the fun begins.  We stopped at the Visitor Center to get additional information and took a short hike along the rim.  As we drove along the way, we stopped and hiked to couple of overlooks, including Otto’s Trail overlook and Independence Monument Overlook. John Otto promoted the creation of Colorado National Monument and preserving the canyon that he came to love.  It is interesting to see that it takes perseverance of few individuals to preserve these places for the futures.  I’ve seen it with John Muir in Yosemite and John D. Rockefeller in Grand Tetons. This series of canyons is very much worth it.

Grand Junction has a great food, wine and brewery scene, we stopped by Kannah Creek Brewery , it had great beer and very good food.  We also found farm stands that offered peaches and nectarines, as well as great tomatoes and other veggies.

But of course, I need to visit the wineries in Palisade. My choice was Bookcliff Vineyard , it has great views of Book Cliffs from their hillside patio and nice wines, I only tried whites.  There are many other tasting rooms in the area, but there’s only so much time.

I enjoyed the visit to Palisade, it was surprising how nice the area was, there were more activities such as tubing or kayaking on the Colorado, they do water and wine tours, with tubing and wineries. The fresh fruits and veggies were great and there’s biking and hiking in the area as well.

Now we are off to Moab UT, it will be nice to visit it again!