grand junction to hotchkiss

Sometimes on a multi-day bike tour there is a day which simply gets you from one place to another. That is, there's no special scenery or huge climb along the way. CRMBT has done a fantastic job of avoiding those days.The first day of this year's tour is as close to one of those days as you'll get with this tour. However, that's not to say it's not interesting.

Grand Junction to Hotchkiss covers 62 miles over rolling hills of the western slope of Colorado. The first nearly 2/3 of the day are on US 50, a mostly 4-lane, divided highway that is a major route through southwest Colorado. The area is sparsely populated with a high desert climate. A pleasant enough place for a ride, but some would say boring in comparison to much of the alpine scenery on tap for the rest of the week. But, there is something that makes it special.

From Grand Junction you ride southeast toward Delta, where you head east on CO 92 toward Hotchkiss. As you ride through the Grand Valley, off to the east, looking over your shoulder the whole morning, is the Grand Mesa. Rising more than 5000 feet out of the valley is the world's largest flat-top mountain. It's hard to appreciate the enormity of the mesa from a distance, but by the end of the week you will have had a chance to climb over it from the other side.And you'll realize that it's big. Really big! Even grand.