Grand Junction Revisited

It was Spring Break for Van!  Since we had the time and Lindsay was up there by herself, we drove back out to Grand Junction to play around while we could.  Some good news came in for Kurtis:  they are officially relocating his office to Platteville, CO, which is just 40 min or so from us in Longmont, so... Kurt & Lindsay are moving MUCH closer to us!  They haven't chosen which specific area yet, but we'll all know soon.  {smile}

The boys, Maggie and I drove over the mountains Monday morning.  We arrived in Grand Junction with enough daylight left to check out one of the dinosaur hikes near Fruita.  We saw a huge Diplodocus femur bone mold in the rock (the bone had been cast and removed in the early 1900s), as well as some of the excavation and the shaft where they found and dug out a whole Apatosaurus skeleton (which is still on display in Chicago)!  There were lots of rocks to climb in, on, around and through.

Tuesday we had a nice big breakfast at home and headed out to find Bangs Canyon and the Rough Canyon Trail.  Here we were supposed to find petroglyphs, but couldn't find a one.  No matter!  We had a spectacular time on our hike!  Maggie was off lead (no real regulation on this, which is polar opposite from our neck of the woods where leash laws are prominent) and positively bouncy!  She was climbing and jumping on the rocks as much as the boys.  The trail led down a long washed out canyon of colorful sandstone and shale.  There were lots of little caves, nooks and crannies that Van and Wes just loved exploring.  Oh to be that small again!  Lindsay said she was so happy to have found these hikes and explore a little more of this area before she leaves it for the Eastern Slope.  I can see us all going back out here to explore more in the future though!

Wednesday came too quickly and it was time for us to depart.
We are so thankful to Lindsay for having us for a couple nights and exploring with us!