Exploring the Great American Southwest With a 1,300 Mile Road Trip

Nice write up. I was born and raised in Grand Junction so I am very familiar with that area. (making a trip up there in October too) The Colorado National Monument was my go-to for late night spirited drives, though you have to be extremely careful as there are some steep drop offs and no guard rails. One correction though, it's not a through road unless they recently changed it? You can travel in both directions.

This will be my trip to Colorado in October. Really looking forward to it.

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Great article, loved reading it. And those pictures... Great scenery. Especially with no tourists around. I find my self preferring wrong season or bad weather just to be able to avoid the crowd.

Those seats are indeed very well suited for long distances and the car is a great cruiser, but getting offload... Absolutely no, especially with those (totally awesome) rims.
 
@R1600Turbo what I meant by a "through road" is that there's not just one entrance or exit. Pretty much every park save for the Grand Tetons I've been to pretty much make you enter at one station, go deep into the park, then turn around and go back the way you came. At least with the Colorado National Monument, I could enter in Grand Junction and end up in Fruita. I suppose I probably could've worded it better.
 
R1600Turbo
This will be my trip to Colorado in October. Really looking forward to it.
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Not sure if you're already aware, but I think you might have posted your address in that pic...
Joey D
@R1600Turbo what I meant by a "through road" is that there's not just one entrance or exit. Pretty much every park save for the Grand Tetons I've been to pretty much make you enter at one station, go deep into the park, then turn around and go back the way you came. At least with the Colorado National Monument, I could enter in Grand Junction and end up in Fruita. I suppose I probably could've worded it better.
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From the parks I've visited I'd say that you can drive in one side and out the other more often than not, obviously depending on the geography of the place. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Craters of the Moon, Colorado National Monument and Petrified Forest all have more than one entrance and exit if I remember correctly (though at Yosemite the valley itself is largely one way in and out). Only one I've personally been to that's one way in and out is Pinnacles in California, and that's because there's a mountain in the way :lol:

Love American place names though.
"So what should we call this town?"
"I dunno, but I see'd a dead horse just a half mile down the road"
"Dead Horse it is"

Great write-up though Joe. Really, really need to get back to the US.
 
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homeforsummer
Not sure if you're already aware, but I think you might have posted your address in that pic...
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Nope. :)

homeforsummer
Love American place names though.
"So what should we call this town?"
"I dunno, but I see'd a dead horse just a half mile down the road"
"Dead Horse it is"
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http://www.glennrandall.com/dead-horse-point.html

According to legend, Dead Horse Point got its name because the mesa top served as a natural corral with tall vertical cliffs on every side but one. Only a narrow neck of land some 30 yards wide connected Dead Horse Point to the much larger mesa called the Island in the Sky, now part of Canyonlands National Park. Local ranchers herded the wild mustangs living nearby onto Dead Horse Point, then closed the gate on the short stretch of fence they built across the neck of land to prevent the horses’ escape. After selecting the best horses for their own use, the culls, called broomtails, were allowed to escape. On one occasion, however, either the gate was left closed or the horses were unable to find their way out. All died of thirst within sight of the Colorado River flowing through the abyss below.
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Finally got around to reading it myself--great write-up, @Joey D.

In addition to breaking down a side of beef (:lol:), a cycling trip not entirely unlike this--apart from being a fair bit shorter--has been on my bucket list for quite some time.
 

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