Thanks for printing!  Don't forget to come back to Cycle of Life Adventures for fresh articles!

Colorado National Monument, Wine Country

During the course of this trip, we will tour the agricultural regions of western Colorado, climb the Grand Mesa, overnight in Crested Butte, enjoy the vistas from the plateaus of The Colorado Monument and bike the Glenwood Canyon Trail.

Tour details: Jun 8-15 $3146 (7 nights/7 days; Sat-Sat) Single room Supplement: $525  Bike rental $175 wk. Grand Junction, CO National Monument, Wine country, Grand Mesa, White River National Forest.

Travel Logistics: Assembly: Glenwood Springs, CO (airline service to Eagle-Vail or Denver with commercial van shuttle to Glenwood. Airline service should be scheduled from Grand Junction following the tour. Amtrak service is also available from Denver to Glenwood Springs). Airport pick up time is: June 8  2 pm in Eagle/Vail and drop off time is: 4 pm in Grand Junction on June 15. Please call the office for full details.

Included:  All lodging, transfers to and from airport, all breakfasts, dinners, and picnic lunches on riding days, cocktail social hour on first day of trip, van support, maps, gps mapping, mechanic, two or more experienced guides.

For those with the passion for heat, a visit to the hot mineral springs can be enjoyed before we start our mild ascent to Carbondale. Then we start our mountain climbs up McClure and Kebler Passes. with a relaxing evening in Crested Butte. We head to the quaint, artistic town of Paonia, where we enjoy great italian dining before we start out to rural farming communities. We skirt through groves of aspen trees as we continue our trip up and over Grand Mesa. Grand Mesa covers most of the skyline when we look up from small western Colorado towns. Grand Mesa is situated between the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers and is the camping and hiking playground of western Colorado. Most of the mesa sits at elevations greater than 10,000 feet and covers some 500 squares miles.

The majority of Colorado's vineyards and orchards are located in the valley near the Colorado River and skirt the hillsides along the Grand Valley and Orchard Mesa, near Palisades. Colorado boasts more than 80 vineyards growing at the highest altitudes in the US. We will have ample time to sample the wines from this region two evenings while staying in Palisades.

We wrap up this trip with the Colorado National Monument. You need to ride it, because words can not describe the natural beauty of this area.

Day 1-Glenwood-Crystal River Valley-Redstone  48 miles  2866/-1447 ft

Day 2- Redstone-Marble-McClure Pass (8,735 ft)-Kebler Pass (9,980 ft)-Crested Butte  70 miles  6329/-4619 ft

Day 3- Crested Butte-Gunnison (shuttle to Blue Mesa Dam)-Paonia  85 miles  5160/-8387 ft

Day 4- Paonia-Hotchkiss-Redlands Mesa-Cedaredge  41 miles  2804/-2096 ft

Day 5- Cedaredge-Powderhorn-Grand Mesa (10,389 ft)-Palisades   49 miles  4715/-6265 ft

Day 6 - Palisades-East Orchard Mesa-Palisades  27 miles  859/-859 ft

Day 7- Palisades-Colorado Monument-Grand Junction  55 miles  3048/-3261 ft

Total miles: 371 miles  Total elevation: 25,781 ft