Dinner and Breakfast in Grand Junction. Trying to Speed this Up.

Colorado Travelog #11
Grand Junction, CO - Monday, 4 Jul 2022, 8am

My previous blog entry, where I wrote about visiting Colorado National Monument, probably seemed pretty brief. That's by design. In the time we were there yesterday afternoon I took over 200 pictures. If I share even 1/20th of them, that's a lot of pictures to touch up and write about. My blogging about this trip is already several days backlogged and I don't want to make it too much worse, so I'll hold off for now on sharing more detail from the hikes we did.

That brings us to our stay in Grand Junction Sunday night. What's there to say about that? Not much, frankly. We checked in to our hotel, went out for dinner, came back and went to sleep (we were tired after a long day!), and got up this morning— ready to lather, rinse, repeat!



Dinner last night was Dave's Famous Barbecue. I don't think we've eaten at that chain restaurant in about 10 years. We picked it last night because I needed some red meat therapy, and Dave's was nearby. It was... okay... but taste amplification from the tiring day improved that to "pretty good". Downing a couple beers with it helped, too. As a bonus the portions were plentiful, leaving enough leftovers for breakfast this morning. Mmm, cold brisket and burnt ends for breakfast!

Hiking Devil's Kitchen

Colorado Travelog #12
Grand Junction, CO - Monday, 4 Jul 2022, 11am

When our visit to Colorado National Monument yesterday turned out to be more than we expected— in a very good way— we punted one of the hikes to today. We got at 7am, ate breakfast at the hotel, and were on the road with the truck packed by 8am.

The trailhead for Devil's Kitchen is just outside the edge of Grand Junction. It was only a 20 minute or so drive to get there. We checked our packs and laced up our boots, starting the trail at 8:30am.



The trail starts off dropping slightly into a broad canyon. It's hard to tell where, or what, Devil's Kitchen is.

BTW, if the terrain looks desert-y, that's because it is. Geographically we're in the Colorado Plateau, one of the deserts of the United States. It covers roughly the "Four Corners" area, from southwest Colorado across to southern Utah and northern Arizona (including, e.g., Sedona) and the northwestern bit of New Mexico. Typical landscape is these exposed layers of sedimentary rock, eroded by a few million years of wind and water.

Back to the specifics of this hike....



The trail starts out easy for the first 1/2 mile or so, a single track of dirt and small gravel. It forks off from trails leading into other canyon areas, then takes a turn and starts to ascend over bare rock. Small rock piles, called cairns, show hikers which way to go. ...When it's not obvious from, say, steps carved in the rock (see photo above).



It remains non-obvious what, or where, Devil's Kitchen is as we climb the sandstone formation. Is this Devil's Kitchen? Is Devil's Kitchen beyond this? Why is it a kitchen, anyway? As we reach the shoulder and turn the corner it becomes apparent.



Devil's Kitchen is a U-shaped area atop this layer, bounded on three sides by rock pillars. We explored the area and climbed up on different (smaller) rocks inside.



Perhaps the best view of Devil's Kitchen is seen by going a bit past it and looking back at it, as in the photo above. One fellow hiker said she could see why it's called Devil's Kitchen.... The rock on the right looks like a devil, and the rocks on the left are the kitchen. I... don't see that. I just see the beauty of Red Rocks Country.

In beauty I walk.