Travel from Fruita to Gunnison

On Sunday, we moved campgrounds from Fruita (James M Robb Colorado River State Park) to Gunnison (Thousand Trails Blue Mesa Recreational Ranch).

We stopped for fuel before leaving Grand Junction -- I got this picture as we were leaving the Love's fuel stop -- the cliffs of the Colorado National Monument to the west.

Another view of the Colorado National Monument

We were driving east on US 50 and the part of Colorado just east out of Grand Junction was very desolate - little housing, very dry, very barren. We drove through a few small towns -- one of them was Delta, Colorado. I didn't take pictures, but there was an interesting business in town -- it had what-looked-like big white concrete blocks in their yard and a huge crane -- I looked it up and found pictures online...

Big white blocks in the yard -- what are they???

Another view of the blocks in the yard with a view of the big crane on the right side

We couldn't imagine what those blocks might be -- I found the name of the company and found out that they are a marble processing company: https://www.coloradostonequarries.com/plant/

In 2021, Colorado Stone Quarries opened their own Marble Slabbing facility, approximately one hundred years after the original mill in Marble started processing the columns for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. Our state-of-the-art factory extends over 40 acres. A warehouse of approximately 140,000 square feet hosts the best Italian technology and machinery to cut and finish our blocks. Here they will be processed into slabs, tiles and cut-to-size blocks. 

 It turns out that this is Yule Marble (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_Marble) -- 

Yule Marble is a marble of metamorphosed Leadville Limestone found only in the Yule Creek Valley, in the West Elk Mountains of Colorado, 2.8 miles (4.5 km) southeast of the town of Marble, Colorado. First discovered in 1873, it is quarried underground at an elevation of 9,300 feet (2,800 m) above sea level—in contrast to most marble, which is quarried from an open pit and at much lower elevations.

The localized geology created a marble that is 99.5% pure calcite, with a grain structure that gives a smooth texture, a homogeneous look, and a luminous surface. It is these qualities for which it was selected to clad the exterior of the Lincoln Memorial and a variety of other buildings throughout the United States, in spite of being more expensive than other marbles. The size of the deposits enables large blocks to be quarried, which is why the marble for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, with its 56-long-ton (57 t) die block, was quarried from Yule Marble.

The interesting things we see as we are driving!

Pictures that I took while we were driving --  

As we got further east, we saw more green.

We ended up in a canyon with steep cliffs on both sides.

We eventually got to a spot where we could start to see Blue Mesa Reservoir.

We had to cross a bridge over the reservoir -- "Smile, Carl!"

Looking east up the reservoir

We arrived at the Thousand Trails campground by about noon, and got checked in. Much cooler temperatures!

ARRL Field Day

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) has a field day the fourth full weekend in June, which, this year, was June 28-29. 

ARRL Field Day is the most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June, more than 31,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.  (https://www.arrl.org/field-day)

We had looked up information and found that there was a Ham Radio club in Grand Junction that would be participating in the field day on Saturday. During the days before, Carl had listened in on some of the club's "nets", and participated in one of them. 

Their field day setup was being done in two places -- we visited the one in Grand Junction set up outside the church where they have their monthly meetings. The other one was located up in the Uncompahgre National Forest -- we contemplated driving there as they promised that it would be a lot cooler, but it would have been about a 3 hour drive round trip.

One of these two folks was the net control (moderator) for the net on which Carl participated on Friday. The net that he joined ran from 7:30-8am M-F and was called the "Oatmeal Net". They had ~30 participants joining each morning to share what they planned to do that day!

The setup outside the church

We enjoyed talking with folks. A couple of them have gone to Arizona in the winter, some to Quartzfest out in Quartzsite in January.

I found an article about another club in Vermont who was participating in Field Day. (https://vtdigger.org/2025/06/30/radio-amateurs-practice-for-emergencies-and-hope-for-high-scores-on-field-day/) They seem to work on the competitions more than this club in Colorado was doing. There are many contests within the ham radio community that gets the operators on the air and using their equipment, so they can be ready to help in case of an emergency.

Fruita Farmers and Makers Market

On Saturday morning, there was a Farmers and Makers Market in downtown Fruita, so we decided to head over there to see what there was to see!

We must be in the right spot!

There were quite a large number of vendors -- 

... probably about 30 -- lots of different things being sold.

We purchased some sweet pickles from this booth. Carl chatted with the lady in the booth (who made all the things she was selling) about fermentation -- she does fermenting, but cannot sell that at the market because she doesn't have a way to keep it at a constant safe temperature while at the market.

Carl took a picture of this downtown business to share with his daughter, Kim.

We enjoy farmers markets -- we were hoping for some fresh vegetables, but guess it is too early for those yet in this area of the country. It is interesting to see what kinds of things are particularly popular -- one lady was sold out of her sourdough bread (her sign indicated she had had many different varieties and each had been crossed off with just one non-sourdough option remaining to be sold). There were at least two other booths that also had sourdough bread, and neither of them appeared to be sold out. There were two beef vendors, a pork vendor, and a fellow selling frozen chickens. 

The chicken guy actually has a peach orchard that he has recently purchased -- he is trying to get the orchard back into production mode, and, if I understood him correctly, is using chickens (by moving their coop every day) to rejuvenate the land. He said that he needed to plant the new peach trees in the same places where the old ones were planted because of the location of the irrigation -- but he needed to clean up the soil from the old trees (I think to get rid of nematodes?). He mentioned that he was following techniques espoused by a farmer in Virginia -- Joel Salatin, near Staunton. The peach farmer also mentioned that he had grown up in Richmond. Small world!

In case you're interested in more about Joel Salatin: https://polyfacefarms.com/about-us 

A laptop project

Carl's daughter, Kim, had given him a laptop that was no longer working well. He decided to dig into it while we were in Fruita. It had several symptoms -- 

• Windows was running really slow - diagnosis:  slow hard drive, 8G memory, old technology
• it would not remember basic settings when booted up (date and time, boot order) - diagnosis: battery for NVRAM was not working
• it would not work without being plugged in and it was difficult to keep the power supply plugged in - diagnosis: laptop battery shot and wire in power supply was broken

He got a new power supply, and now it stays plugged in okay.

After taking the back/bottom off, he could see components...

Zoomed in: The NVRAM battery was a 3V button cell, but not the same any that we had, however, he could replace it with a 2032 button battery. It now remembers the boot order; it still doesn't keep date and time, but he is thinking that a new laptop battery might resolve that.

A task still in progress...  I think he likes tinkering...

Enjoying our site -- Colorado River State Park, Fruita

The orientation of our site gives us shade on our "public" side in the afternoon...

We had our chairs set up on the side with shade.

The Jee-rage is getting a little shade from a tree on the other side of the campground road.

Carl had gotten up and started to examine a couple of suspicious wet spots under Gracie. They were near the passenger side underneath the rig.

They weren't large, but any drips are potentially a problem sign... when he checked the bay on the passenger side, the floor of the compartment was wet (and, unfortunately, it is carpeted, so the carpet was soaked).

He got into the same bay on the driver's side (he is behind the opened door), and found that one of the hoses for our RO water filter system had a pin hole and was spraying water in the compartment. The lid of one of the plastic containers in the compartment was full of water, and the floor/carpet on this side was also soaked.

Carl was able to replace the small hose very quickly which eliminated the ongoing leak, but the wet bay floor/carpet needed to be addressed. We pulled items out from the driver's side and temporarily put them under the rig. On the passenger side, we pulled everything out that was physically on the floor -- thankfully, on that side we have a shelving unit and a slide drawer that elevates most things off the floor, so there were only a few things that needed to come out. We left both bay doors open until sunset, and then closed up for the night.

In the morning, Carl opened up the bay again -- we made sure everything that we could take out was out, and put a fan to blow through the compartment.

By evening, with the low humidity (~20% in the morning, down to 11% later in the day), the carpet seemed to be all dried out, and we could put everything back. 

We have a water alarm in that bay, but it seemed to be dead. It would still alarm, but not loudly -- we had been away most of the day when we discovered the wet spots underneath Gracie, so we wondered if it alarmed while we were gone. 

We were grateful that the wetness from the bay with the water filter system did not seem to migrate into neighboring bays -- there must be enough of a lip that the water didn't travel and the carpet didn't wick. It was also interesting that the two drips of water were close to the passenger side (since the water filter system is on the driver's side), but we're grateful that they were there where we could see them when sitting outside -- we may not have noticed it as soon if the drips had been anywhere else. We thought that the rig was a leaning a little toward the passenger side, maybe that is why the drips ended up under that area of the bays.

As Carl says, "It's always something!"

Colorado National Monument

I have to admit that I had not heard of Colorado National Monument before I started planning this summer's trip... but after reading about it, we knew that we wanted to see it, and got up relatively early on Thursday to drive through and enjoy the national monument on our way down to Grand Junction to get some shopping done and pick up an Amazon package.

The "west" entrance to Colorado National Monument was only a couple of miles from our campground...

A map of the monument -- you might notice really squiggly road at the top side (which is actually west -- North points to the right side of the map) -- and another really squiggly road at the bottom (east) near Grand Junction. We'd be climbing quite a lot, going along at a relatively level elevation within the monument, and then descending down into Grand Junction.

The view of rocks right behind the map display

There were a couple of tunnels on the way up.

We drove through the Saddlehorn Campground -- I had looked at the potential of booking a site there, but the size limit for sites is 40' (40' for RV+toad, and Gracie is 40'9" all on her own). The sites are definitely more suited to tents and pop-ups.

Near the campground was Window Rock Trail which we decided to try -- it was supposed to be a 1/2 mile loop... 

It was a nice walk...

... though the trail was not very well marked...

... so whether we were on the trail or not, we weren't sure! That's Fruita in the valley below.

Looking back into the canyon of the national monument...

Looking south / east toward Grand Junction

Obligatory selfie!

We had looked up information about the national monument and two different individuals had recommended 4-5 overlooks by name, so we decided to stop at those...

From Independence Monument View we could appropriately see Independence Monument...

... evidently it is common for people (*some* people, not people like Carl and me) to climb it on 4th of July -- but we won't be around this area through then.

From Grand View, we had side view of Independence Monument -- it looks quite different from the side!

We could see various spires and monuments...

... with the valley beyond.

Valleys

These were called "Coke Ovens", not because they were, but because they looked like coke ovens to explorers who were the early viewers of these sites.

This is Red Canyon Overlook, with the hanging canyon looking down to Grand Junction. You can see a small indentation at the end of the valley which is where the stream has cut down.

My Carl!

Cold Shivers Point...

... with another view down into Grand Junction.

On the far side of this broad valley is another set of cliffs -- I thought that we heard that it is Grand Mesa, but when I look at a map, it appears Grand Mesa is south of this area.

Carl out getting pictures of the views!

We finished up our drive through the national monument, exiting the "east" exit near Grand Junction. We had planned to stop at an Indian buffet restaurant for lunch, but when we got there, they no longer have a buffet, so we headed to a soup and salad place (The Garden of Eat'n) that we enjoyed! We got grocery shopping done, picked up our Amazon package, and then headed back to Fruita.

James M Robb Colorado River State Park - Fruita

When making plans for this summer, I didn't have specific plans for Fruita, but it seemed a logical place to stop between Dinosaur and Gunnison, Colorado -- two other places where I had plans to stop. I found the state park and made reservations -- I don't honestly remember much other about it. I couldn't get a full hookup, but we'd be okay on electric/water. Either I didn't notice that the electric/water sites were 30A, or I thought that the weather would be cool enough that we'd be okay without 50A service. I wasn't anticipating temperatures in the upper 90s and near 100 -- this is Colorado! Oh well... it is pleasant early in the day!

Our first morning, we walked around a little in the campground -- beautiful view of the mountains that make up the Colorado National Monument (of which I had never heard before booking our camping in this location!).

Naturally, the Colorado River flows right by the campground. There is a boat ramp and bike/walking paths and day-use areas available as well.

We can survive with just 30A service. We need to consider how many things can be running at the same time -- our general rule is that each heating/cooling appliance takes ~10A, and the refrigerator can kick into its defrost cycle at any time, usually the worst possible time -- so that's 10A that could hit at any moment. When an air conditioner starts, it starts with a large draw, so we don't figure that we can run more than one at a time. So, refrigerator + one air conditioner takes 20A -- so one other appliance for cooking. Keep the water heater off except when we want to take showers, and then use the diesel burner. 

Meanwhile, see what we can see here -- trying to do things in the early morning and stay cool in the afternoons!