Nick and I decided to do a May trip from May 5-8. This was one of the few breaks Nick had in his grad school schedule, which is jam packed. We decided to basically repeat the trip I had done in October to Western Colorado, as the weather would be really nice and we could escape mud season (melting snow), and snow hiking. See my October entries for details about these areas. We followed this itinerary:
Day 1, May 5: Denver to Paonia. See Paonia, Colorado Wine and Orchard Tour for details from my October trip.
Day 2, May 6: Paonia to Palisade. See Bike Wine Tour in Palisade for October trip details.
Day 3, May 7: Palisade to Colorado National Monument. See Colorado National Monument Scenic Drive for details.
Day 4, May 8: Colorado National Monument to Denver. See same entry above.
I’ll summarize some of the differences between this and the last trip and new things we did.
Day 1: Paonia Wineries and Orchard Camping
Nick and I had a beautiful drive out to Paonia. In the spring there is snow on the mountains which I didn’t get in the fall — but I did get those stunning fall leaves. I had us head straight for Root and Vine Market, but it was closed Wednesdays as it turned out. We needed lunch so we headed into town but it turned out a lot of places were closed — with being a weekday and more of a shoulder season and coming out of pandemic restrictions, I’m guessing. Most wineries were closed but it appeared the Azura up the hill was open. We decided to go to the grocery store and get a picnic lunch and head up to Azura.
Azura was absolutely stunning and not very busy. We did a wine tasting and then shared part of a bottle and took the rest with us. I had loved this place in the fall, but in spring you get the snow capped peaks.
So it all worked out! We had a peaceful time with the place basically to ourselves before heading over to Big B’s. The orchard camping was not open so we camped next to a pond (which is right next to the orchard). The view were amazing. The top photo for this blog entry is an orchard blossom view!
After setting up camp we headed to main area to get food and cider and go shopping. It was lush and green with perfect temperatures, and we both tried out the swings.
At night we slept with the tent fairly open so we could stargaze. The stars were just incredible. One point during the night and early morning, Nick and I both couldn’t sleep. Nick and I went outside to look at the stars and saw these crazy lights moving across the sky in a formation. It was creepy! We later found out this was a SpaceX launch and lots of people saw these. I can’t believe we caught them though!
Day 2: Palisade Winery Tour and Peche Dinner
The next morning, we headed out early and stopped for coffee in Hotchkiss before driving out to Palisade. We repeated my strategy of going on a bike ride by the Colorado River at the lovely Riverside Park with our fold-up bikes. We then headed to park at our motel, the Spoke and Vine. We loved it here so much and it’s the perfect location to start your biking wine tour of Palisade.
We started bright and early at 10 am and got flights at Plum Creek Cellars, which I had skipped the last trip.
It was a great start to our tour before we headed to Maison La Belle Vie for food. Last time, I hadn’t gotten a charcuterie since I was solo and they were for 2 or 4, so this time we got their famous charcuterie with a tasting, which we enjoyed. It was much less busy than last time I’d been here and very beautiful.
We had a nice ride through the orchards with Mount Garfield in the background.
Next we stopped at Talon and St. Katherine’s for a tasting (it had been so busy last time I’d skipped it). We then went to Varaison, which does a free tasting with wine education. I had done this last time, but had the vintner’s wife this time around as our guide. We did the tasting at a table with others (outside) and it was fun to do something so social after the pandemic. Nick loved the educational element as much as I did.
By this time, we had acquired a lot of bottles of wine so we went to check in to Spoke and Vine. I hadn’t stayed here in October since I had a free stay at a Marriott, so I stayed in Grand Junction, but I’d spotted it as a future place I wanted to go. It’s a revamped motel that has small, lovely rooms (true luxury after camping) with lots of character. Since I had been to Palisade last, they added an outdoor patio in the parking lot.
We wanted to make our last wine bike tour stop of the day Colorado Vintner’s Collective. They are a winery but also showcase a variety of makers’ wines. I fell in love with their rose last time and had brought it home. We did a tasting and ended up joining their wine club to get our rose fix.
We headed back to the motel to get ready for our dinner reservation at Peche. This has been called the best restaurant in Colorado. I didn’t eat there in October for a number of reasons; staying in Grand Junction was one. But now, Nick and I were staying a short walk away and fully vaccinated (2 weeks from our second shots), so this was our first indoor dining experience since probably February or early March of 2020.
Wow was this dinner amazing. The cocktails, the food, the experience, and the ambiance were perfect. It’s not overly formal but very nice inside.
We slept amazing in our king bed.
Days 3&4: Colorado National Monument
Spoke and Vine delivered us amazing coffee, yogurt, and locally made granola in the morning. We brought the tray to the patio and enjoyed our breakfast outside.
After that, we headed to the monument. We repeated the hikes I did, Devil’s Kitchen and Serpent’s Trail. However, in October, I couldn’t find how you got inside the Devil’s Kitchen rock formation, and this time we figured it out.
My advice is go to the left of the big formation and kind of around; you will see an entrance around the left side. This photo shows where you start going around to the left of this “balancing rock” formation to find Devil’s Kitchen. The second photo shows the formation once you pass this rock and turn to the right, where you can then go inside.
We then did the scenic drive I described previously. It was so fun to show Nick all the stops along the way.
By afternoon, it was getting pretty hot (I think we got into the 90s) so we retreated to our campsite to relax and read. This was our first time setting up our non-freestanding backpacking tent in the desert, and rocks worked decently for set up.
We then enjoyed the sunset at the Books Cliffs overlook with some cans of cider from Big B’s. There were these really cool birds (swifts I think?) diving and gliding that were so fun to watch.
We saw some great sunset colors on the walk back to camp.
Since it was relatively warm (I think it only got into the 50s), we kept the tent open. However, in the night, the wind really picked up and started blowing dust into our tent (and into my nose). This woke me up and it definitely took me way too long to figure out to close off the tent and keep the dirt out. Don’t recommend, but what can you do? It wasn’t windy when we went to sleep.
We woke up early to watch the sunrise. It was too cloudy and not the incredible sunrise I saw in October, but still very peaceful. We made coffee and breakfast while watching the clouds float.
We finished out the scenic drive and then headed to James R. Robb State Park to do a quick bike ride along the Colorado River looking back at the Monument. Next, we headed to Fruita and got a big breakfast at Kamila’s before heading back to Denver.
This is probably going to be a regular trip, and is perfect for those shoulder season times when it’s too cold to camp in the mountains.