CLIFTON, COLORADO

After twelve days since leaving Salmon Arm and 2339 kms (1462 miles), we are at our destination. We are parked alongside our friends house in Clifton which is a suburb of Grand Junction, CO.  The spot we are parked in is at least twice as long as our motor home and has water, sewer and power hookups.  How can you beat that?  We arrived here on Monday in the early afternoon and our friends Ken and Marie were here to welcome us as Jim and Judy had met traveling friends for lunch.  After sitting on the patio visiting for the rest of the afternoon, the six of us had pizza, salad and chocolate pie for supper.
Last night the six of us gathered at Ken an Marie's for a rib supper with peach and lemon pies for dessert.  Later, we were indoctrinated into a version of Hand and Foot which the ladies won 17,000-4,000!  Aileen, the newby, was key to the ladies win providing much of the score.
Aileen helped Judy and Marie at their church today providing for the needy.  I went off hiking, geocaching and photographing today and had an enjoyable time.  I hiked up two canyons from the road and within minutes the only sound I heard was provided by nature.  Very peaceful.  Well there was the sound of my puffing and the dripping off my brow as it was in the high 20s C, somewhere around 80F, I'd guess.  But it was worth it.  I did get 8 more geocaches as well as a couple hundred photos.  After a shower and walking Mitzy, we joined Jim and Judy and their friends Vern and Charlene for supper at a nearby restaurant.

This ground squirrel was guarding a geocache yesterday

Interesting leaves up one of the canyons I walked today

A late season flowering Columbine up the canyon.  It was very tiny and I didn't see it when I walked by but I sat and had a snack and finally spotted it.

Open wide.  This is a distant shot of a rock formation atop the canyon walls.

Going up the second canyon, I noticed this two foot wide piece of colourful sandstone in a low overhang and thought it looked like a gold motherlode.

Driving along the secondary highway this afternoon, I spotted these swallow condos

The above photos are from my Canon SX50, the rest below are from my Canon 6D

This interesting feature is across the I-70 freeway from Clifton and I parked alongside the highway to take these images

Still some fall colour

Not sure what the white secretion is in the rock but it sets off the coloured leaves nicely

The only large group of colourful trees along the secondary highway today