7/9 - Monday - Travel Day

Monday was a transition day. We left Rocky Mountain National Park and headed out for the western slope of Colorado and the Grand Junction area. We stopped at Winter Park Colorado to check out the ski hill and a toboggan slide they have. We all rode down the slide, which was on the ski hill. It was a nice experience for the kids, who have not been downhill skiing yet.

We continued our driving and eventually arrived at the town of Fruita Colorado, just past Grand Junction. We stayed at James M Robb State Park, Fruita Section for the next two nights. This was a very nice, brand new state park. They had the nicest facilities I think I’ve ever seen in a state park. The park itself is on the edge of Grand Junction and Fruita. It’s also pretty close to the interstate and just on the edge of town.

http://parks.state.co.us/Parks/JamesMRobbColoradoRiver/Camping/FruitaSection/

On the western slope, the area is high desert country, so there are few trees. It gets pretty hot during the day in July, with highs in the mid to upper 90’s, but does cool down nicely at night. We had quite a contrast between the sleeping bags at night and raging hot sun during the day. It really worked out fine as any air conditioning from a hotel room was only really useful during the day, and we were out sightseeing at that time. Like they always say, “It’s a dry heat.”