Monday, June 22, 2015

Cedaredge, CO, Gateway to the Grand Mesa

 

Our home for a few weeks is the Shady Creek RV Park in Cedaredge, Co, a quirky little park that is basically in someone’s backyard. It’s hot here at just over 6,200’ but it’s only a 15 mile drive up to the top of Grand Mesa, the largest flat mountain in the world, at 10,000’. We’ve been up there a couple times already and have plans for a few day trips to other interesting places not too far from here.

Our private, shady site is next to a small building which houses a washer, dryer and restroom. The owner is not crazy about kids so she rarely rents sites to families unless it’s just for a night or two. She would rather have quiet old retirees like us, so this ought to be a nice place to be over the 4th of July.

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We are chipping away at our to-do list, having ordered a few things, washed both the car and Lazy Daze, and started refinishing some of the kitchen drawers and cabinets that were looking pretty bad. We just sanded them lightly, touched up worn spots with some stain, and used Minwax Wipe-On Poly. The problem is it takes 3 coats so it’s an all day process, but the ones we’ve done so far look much better.

Here are some photos of our hikes up on Grand Mesa, which contains about 300 lakes. This is a problem only in that all that water makes for good mosquito breeding, but so far we haven’t found them to be much of a problem.

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Our first attempt around one of the lakes was cut short due to snow. We forgot to put on our high top waterproof hikers so we went a bit lower to the Scotland Trail, where it was much dryer.

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We went back a couple days later to hike the Crag Crest National Recreation Trail, a 10 mile loop which we did not intend to complete. Instead we started at the western trail head and did an out an back to the crest, a nice 6 mile hike. Although a gradual climb of about 900 feet over three miles to the crest, we sure could feel that we were at almost 11,000’ elevation. Maybe we should be carrying oxygen tanks in our backpacks.

Part of the trail goes through the forest, part is open and very rocky. Once you get up on the crest it is narrow with drop-offs on both sides. We walked through quite a lot of snow and mud and crossed several streams but we were prepared this time.

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It was a nice hike, one that we may have to go back and do again.

13 comments:

  1. Except for the heat, looks like you are in a great spot for gettin' stuff done. Hike looks awesome.

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  2. Your site is so pretty.

    Wow...snow, water falls, flowers...Grand Mesa has it all. Beautiful.

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  3. Glad the skeeters are tolerable :) One is too many for me...

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  4. Wow, the Grand Mesa is beautiful. We have driven across--a shortcut to where we were headed. Think we should spend some time there.

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  5. Such a contrast between snow and flowers but not too surprised at 10,000 ft. Wonder if someone makes small O2 canisters to fit in a pack. Many of our visitors could use it. Glad the mozis aren't too bad.

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  6. Sounds like the perfect place to spend the holiday! We'll be in that neck of the woods this fall. Have fun getting all your projects done!

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  7. I can't believe you posted this! Not I am sick! Not only am I sitting here in the heat and humidity and winds at 1100 ft with no trails anywhere but now I have to read about someone hiking the very trail I so wanted to hike!!! Boy! Haha!! It is nice to see that a lot of the snow has finally melted. Our trip there in May didn't look anything like that. How neat that you did some of the Crag Crest Trail. I really, really wanted to do this after seeing photos of the trail. I really wanted to hike across the top. That looked so cool. At least I got to enjoy it through your eyes:) Thanks for sharing. What a neat park. Do they have room for us Big Boys? We love the idea of no kids. sounds like my idea of a place to stay. Can't wait to read what else we missed with all the late spring snow on the mesa.

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    1. Sorry!;-) No, May would not be a great time for hiking on the Mesa. In fact we were so surprised at the amount of snow that's still up there in late June. I think September would be a great time to come as there are so many aspen trees it would be gorgeous. And we've heard the mosquitos are gone by then.
      And yes, sites here are large enough for big rigs but a bit closer together than we like.

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    2. Thanks for the info:) They got a lot of late spring snow up there. When we drove around, we could see about a foot of new snow on top of the old stuff. All our rain in Grand Junction was snow up there.

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  8. Sweet to find an out-of-the-way spot for the holiday, especially one where you can get a few things done. Love the shelf of snow on the rocks, but those rocks look like ankle twisters. The views are wonderful. Can't believe it's still hot at 6k feet, that's about the highest elevation we're comfortable getting around in.

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  9. What a lovely area to hike and slowly acclimate to the altitude change. Great photos of the lakes and Mesa. We will be in Ouray starting July 20th and hope we can meet up with you for a group hike. There is always safety in numbers and I even know a little CPR. Never did CPR on an actual person but I was good in the class room bringing the rubber dummy back to a normal heart beat.

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  10. This looks like a neat area, one that we would enjoy. That hike is something I am going to bookmark.

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