Colorado Trip: Days 4 & 5: Grand Junction

February 11, 2026

Colorado Trip: Days 4 & 5: Grand Junction

From Steamboat Springs, we headed down to Grand Junction. Now, when I asked on a Colorado FB page, telling people the areas we were going to be in, many people said "why go to Grand Junction, don't go there"....etc...I'm glad we didn't listen (don't listen to everything people say). We stayed at the Clarion Inn in Grand Junction. It was nice, reasonably priced and comfortable. Not fancy, but comfortable.

On the way we stopped in the small, but cute town of Palisade. While there we stopped at the Artful Cup for coffee, a cute little gift shop, The Atrium at Sage Creations and an art festival. It was a fun pitstop. There was even a street named "Troyer Ave". Unfortunately we didn't have time to go back and take a picture (that's our last name).

From there we headed to Grand Junction. The weather was looking somewhat sketchy, so we had to make sure we used our time wisely.

Where we ate/coffee shops:

Kiln Coffee: I am glad I found this gem of a coffee shop. Their motto is "Live, life, refined". Locally owned, we also purchased one of the owners children's books he wrote about his son. I made a couple stops to this shop.

Four Winds Coffee and Tea: This local coffee shop is located at a center that provides a safe meeting place for use by campus ministries, college students and the community. The atmosphere in the coffee shop area was cozy with lots of spaces for seating.

Roots Gastro Hub. This was a great find! Kind of technically a "food truck" of sorts, it's located at the back of bike shop, closed in on 3 sides, there is dining outside. I enjoyed the Dirtnap sandwich on a hoagie with bison, sliced peppers, onion, mushrooms, melted cheese and a horseradish sauce. So good. We also shared a hummus and vegetable plate and I enjoyed a lavender lemonade. My hubby had a burger and an iced matcha. Well worth going to.

The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill: This was another good find. The food was really good and reasonably priced. You walk in, order from the counter and then find your own seat, but in no way did it feel "fast food". I don't even remember what we had, but it was good.

Graff Dairy We stopped here for some ice cream. I had a cone, and my hubby had a milkshake. It was a cute spot.

What we did/saw:

Devils Kitchen Trail: This is about a 1.2 mile hike. The trail is fairly easy until you reach the end where you have to climb and scramble up some rock to get to a great viewpoint. You can climb higher but I wasn't up to it. The trail is beautiful, with very neat rock formations. There is another trail near this one, I believe called Serpents Trail, we didn't have time for this.

Rimrock Road: This road takes you to Devils Kitchen Trail. It's a scenic drive in the Colorado National Monument. There are some amazing rock formations, tunnels and it is an overall beautiful drive. The drive typically takes about 45 minutes. We stopped off at some viewpoints (and there are many), before circling back to the hotel.

Lands End Road Back to 65: We took lands end road up to the Lands End Observatory The observatory itself is closed but the lookout area is worth the visit. The grand mesa is the worlds largest flat top mountain and at a 10,500 foot elevation. The road to the top is not paved, and for quite awhile along the top is unpaved but the road isn't too bad. After taking time to feed some chipmunks/rock squirrels, we headed further down the road (which continues to be unpaved but not in bad shape). After multiple stops, we made it back to a paved road that took us back into Grand Junction.