Fruita Mountain Biking Trip

My second cousin (once removed) Lori got married in Grand Junction and we decided to turn the trip into a camping/mountain biking/wedding trip. We attended a family BBQ at Colorado National Monument Saturday night, camped out at Fruita, biked Mary's loop along the mesa Sunday morning, and attended the wedding Sunday evening. On the way to GJ we stopped in Glenwood Springs for lunch.

Delicious Southwest Ravioli at brewery in Glenwood Springs.

Than and I have become those people - you know, eaters. Kind of like foodies, although not as snobby. He is slightly less discriminatory than me, but we both will eat just about anything. I had to take a picture of this empty dish because it contained one of the most delicious meals we have ever had. And let me tell, as active eaters, we have had a LOT of really good meals. Think of your basic Italian ravioli dish, only substitute the classic tomato sauce for a rich, spicy, red pepper sauce with a few black beans, corn, and cilantro mixed in. We shared this dish and Than told me if I wasn't his beautiful wife of three months, he would be tempted to push me away and run off with the dish...

After lunch we visited the Glenwood Springs Railroad Museum across the street. We paid a dollar and this photo captures almost 60% of the entire museum...

Once we made it to GJ, we decided to drive the entire Colorado National Monument just to check it out. The drive takes about an hour if you are rushing it, and is spectacular. We want to go back when it is cooler for more camping and some hiking.

Self-portrait in CNM.

This is a photo taken from our campsite. Ah... so beautiful. Oh wait, what is that smell and that constant roaring noise? Could it be a sewage treatment plant and the freeway just to my right? Parts of this campsite were awesome...other parts were not so awesome. We only stayed one night and were up  by 6:30 AM to go mountain biking.

This is a photo of me taken after a first aid session (note my knee). I just got clipless pedals and of course I had the classic fall on my first ride out - I came to a perfectly balanced stop, but when I tried to unclip, I fell right over.

We rode a trail called Mary's Loop. It is about 8.5 miles along the rim of Horse-Thief Canyon overlooking the Colorado River. This was taken at about 7:30 AM. It was already 75 degrees and climbing, but the scenery was spectacular. I highly recommend this trail for hikers and bikers.

I don't recommend it for the faint of heart though. At times the trail came perilously close to the edge and we decided to walk it - me especially because I clearly hadn't mastered the whole clipless pedal thing.

Than posing with my bike. I rode the trail to that point, then got off and walked a while.

I started with a food photo and I'm ending with a food photo. This is the Empire malt shop. Run by your classic 60's hippie couple, it is the BEST malt/shake/hamburger joint around. We always stop there on our way back from Winter Park to get a chocolate malt. Seems like a weird choice in the middle of winter, but we never pass up an opportunity to go to the malt shop. If you're near Empire... GO TO THE MALT SHOP!