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Grand Junction, CO
I plan on riding out my remaining years in Grand Junction, CO, so I thought it would be handy to explain why this place captured my heart. I have gone through a major life change over the last 2 years. Divorce, reconnecting and marrying my high school sweetheart, Pam, and relocating to Grand Junction, CO. We are building our dream home overlooking the Grand Valley which will be my 30th move. So why Grand Junction? There are some logistical reasons such as being half way between our families in the US. Plus I have lived here before working at Union Oil’s Parachute Creek Oil Shale Project and I had lived in Colorado 76-87 so I knew of Grand Junction.
My life started settling down after the chaos of divorce, I then focused on where to land. I loved my previous home in Oregon; the Pacific Northwest was an awesome place to live, especially with the outdoor activities that I was always pursuing. But Colorado is also an awesome place to live, but where could I find that perfect combination of affordability and adventure? Divorce does deal you a significant financial hit, so affordability was a challenge. Cost of housing in Colorado immediately eliminated relocating to a beautiful mountain resort, or the Denver front range. I did want some city amenities but did not want to live in a crowded city. Grand Junction was on my radar, so I did my research and determined the Grand Valley could be an option. Homes starting at $400K are good values. Then I needed to get buy-in from my new wife, who had very little experience with the west, not to mention her family is mostly in Ohio. So I took her on a 5-week trip around the west to show her my life’s path and to expose her to Grand Junction the beautiful low humidity weather of western Colorado. Life Transition Post
It worked, we decided Grand Junction would be a great place to live. A big part of our story is the opportunity we came across to build our own house with an awesome view of the Grand Valley, but initially we were just searching for an affordable house ideally with a view of Mt Garfield (right). I’ll leave the house story (which is incredible) to another post, this story will be about Grand Junction.
Adventure
Grand Junction does not need a post from me to bring it publicity. It is already known as a fabulous place to live in the West. I will just give my review to help validate what is already known, and my followers will better understand what brought me here. For me, the adventure needed to continue, and I knew it had to offer access to wilderness. I guess I equate the exploration of new things, especially in the wilderness, as adventure. Making my final home in Grand Junction is an incredible adventure, and having all that western Colorado offers allows the adventure to continue. The nearby adventure attributes include the Rocky Mountains, Colorado River, Grand Mesa, Colorado National Monument, Uncompahgre Wilderness, and the 5 National Parks near Moab UT. Those adventure opportunities typically take the form of hiking and backpacking for me, but I never knew how much I would appreciate these opportunities year-round. My post “My Goto Hikes Around the Grand Valley” says it all.
Weather
The weather in the Grand Valley area is fabulous which makes all of those adventure opportunities a year-long reality. It really is an awesome climate, definitely a desert semi-arid mix. I would equate it to living in Phoenix, except 20 degrees cooler and far less crowded. It does get hot, maybe 30 days at or slightly above 100, but with 15% humidity, all you need to do is chill in the shade. Winter temperatures can get cold at night but generally get into the 30s & 40s during the day. Those temperatures again are enhanced by the lack of humidity; you can be very comfortable in the sun if the temperature is above freezing. I wouldn’t mind a bit more snow; the average snowfall is only 15″, but it sure is better not having to worry about snow. But of course, if you want to drive through the mountains to Denver, you will have to deal with serious snow.
Winter Recreation
I will be 70 in a few more months, but I still enjoy recreation other then just hiking. Skiing has always been important to me, but I only need to ski a few times every winter to recharge that battery. Powderhorn Mountain Resort with 1650′ vertical is all that I need. I have skied most of the other big ski mountains, but my body can’t justify those prices anymore. Powderhorn has some great Blue Runs that totally satisfy my needs.
Nordic Skiing has not been in my blood since I was telemark skiing long ago around Steamboat Springs. But I took those 40 year old skis and had a wonderful time cross country skiing up on the Mesa thanks to the Grand Mesa Nordic Council.
The go-to winter recreation options for the Grand Valley typically means going up to the Grand Mesa which is less than an hour drive. However, options such as Aspen, Crested Butte, or Telluride are easily accessible. I’m actually looking forward to taking my grandchildren up to the Mesa for some serious sledding.
Summer Recreation
You can include all forms of warm weather recreation in the Grand Valley, but the most popular options, other than hiking, focus on water sports or the numerous biking trails, especially around the Colorado National Monument. I am looking forward to exploring options like Stand Up Paddle Boarding (SUPing) on the Colorado River or trying out some of the easier mountain biking trails. There are 28 miles of paved trails, mostly highlighted by the Riverfront Trail, which we have taken advantage of numerous times already.
Another activity that I am looking forward to returning to is Fishing, and oh boy, those 300 lakes up on the Mesa along with the rivers sure do encourage that.
Community
What kind of community is Grand Junction? It is a regional hub for commerce, serving a very large region of western Colorado and eastern Utah. This means having most of the big box stores and restaurant chains easily accessible. We can confirm the availability of quality health care with a couple of strong hospital systems. Quaint downtown commerce environments are found in downtown Grand Junction, Fruita & Palisade. Traffic is not really apparent, there is a saying that you can get anywhere in 11 minutes, and I tend to agree. Excellent seasonal events are highlighted by the awesome fruit grown in the valley, most known for Peaches. Other telling features are happy people working at the DMV or Post Office. Yes, Grand Junction is a friendly place, but the locals do not want to see their secret discovered. I guess this post doesn’t help with that, but reality does kick in, which means of course Grand Junction is going to grow, but there is plenty of room still available.
This is a short personal review of our Grand Valley that may help others find their perfect home. In the coming years, I am hopeful that I will be putting out more backpacking posts from the surrounding wilderness. However, age is catching up with me, but that may be the greatest value of this area for me. There are so many amazing easy hikes that should allow me to live out my years with nature.
Oil Shale – Union Oil
Historical Posts representing Adventure Continues: Second Quarter
Scientific Frontiers was in the process of closing when I found a note left on our door from my Hewlett-Packard rep mentioning that Union Oil was looking for a computer person for their Parachute Creek Oil Shale operation. This was such a turning point, I was now a computer person, maybe it was time to pursue this technology career. So I got the job, not because of experience but because of potential, or maybe because of flexibility. Few believed that this Oil Shale operation would be around much longer since the area was just coming off “Black Sunday” when Exxon shut down their Colony Oil Shale operation causing an economic disaster for the Western Colorado region. For me it was just another adventure.
Headquarters were in Grand Junction, CO, and the Oil Shale Operation was up the Colorado River on I70 at Parachute, CO. Exxon was in the process of building a city across from Parachute for 50,000 people that was now mostly a ghost town. Some 5000 inhabitants of the area had left so finding a place to live was no problem. We ended up renting a house in Clifton between Palisade and Grand Junction. My job site was in Parachute which required a 40 min drive along a really beautiful section of the Colorado River via Interstate 70.
Union Oil’s computer operations were primarily based on IBM mainframes. We had a IBM mini computer on sight but we primarily relied on our 3270 vintage terminals to connect to corporate mainframes. I didn’t have any real experience with this platform but I quickly learned how the game was played. They had just installed their Foxboro process control computers to run the various components of the oil shale process. The Foxboro computer was mini computer with a real time control BASIC language reacting to live feedback from temperature, pressure and flow sensors.
They sent me to Foxborough, MA, for a couple of weeks to learn how to program the Foxboro Computer. I then created the alarms that would dictate the parameters for which the operators must stay within. I was in technology heaven programming computers in the Parachute Creek canyon.
This was a time of growing up, buy a house, start a family, all of which is part of the Adventure. Grand Junction was adapting to the Oil Shale boom bust roller coaster, but at the core of this western entrance to the Rockies was still agriculture and outdoor recreation.
I am so glad we were able to take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy western Colorado. From the desert to the mountains, there was plenty of Adventure to Continue. The Grand Mesa offered great backcountry skiing with some of the best powder skiing I ever experienced at Powderhorn.
We bought a house almost next to the Colorado River in Palisade from an older couple who taught Connie how to can fruit. Yes Fruit, this area was all about fruit orchards. Palisade was located at the entry to the Colorado River Canyon on the Western slope of the Rocky Mountains. Mt Garfield towered above us in Palisade. It was an awesome experience except for the pain we had to endure from two miscarriages as we tried to start a family.
Pressure was mounting on Union Oil to produce oil from the shale. Our country could not risk a dependance on the middle east so our oil shale operation existed to guarantee fuel for national defense. But would our process work? It was a very ambitious effort to mine shale, heat it in a retort to extract the oil and then move it from the side of the mountain 5 miles down the valley to the upgrade facility before it cooled to paraffin. In the annals of american engineering ingenuity, this was fascinating. I was right in the middle of it on the side of that mountain ready to make adjustments to the Foxboro programming. It didn’t work. It made sense to petroleum engineers, but they should have listened to the mine engineers. The abrasiveness of shale totally defeated the metal screw technology. Once the shale oil is extracted the spent shale expands to be even more abrasive like volcanic pumice. This spent shale was dumped over the side of the mountain after which we discovered that the rain water runoff was extremely carcinogenic and it was flowing to the Colorado River. I spent my remaining time with Union Oil helping to monitor this hazardous runoff that we were trying to capture with many holding ponds all the way down the canyon.
The next adventure would take us back to Steamboat Springs to work for ACZ, Inc.
Next Post: Start a Family in Steamboat Springs
The Adventure Continues 