Crag Crest, Grand Mesa

Just to the east of Grand Junction, there is a formation called Grand Mesa. Unlike the sandstone that surrounds the rest of Grand Junction, Grand Mesa is topped by a flat layer of slowly eroding volcanic rock. Grand Mesa is the large flat feature in the background of this picture. More information can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Mesa

There is a small reference to Halka Chronic at the bottom of the Wikipedia article. Her Roadside Geology series is interesting to those who are into that kind of stuff, like me. Dry and technical, but still highly recommended.
I went with a church(??!!) group to the highest point on Grand Mesa, on a hike called Crag Crest. The hike starts out at green meadows, forests, and lakes.

Trees and meadows are highly unusual for this part of the US, because it is a desert. Grand Mesa gets a large amount of snow and rain, and the elevation is above 10,000 feet, so it is alpine-cool. The top of Grand Mesa is something like an oasis of trees and lakes suspended in the sky.

As you hike higher, the trees give way to volcanic rock.

Further along the hike, we could see a swath of trees that had been blown down by strong winds. These trees had been growing for hundreds of years, yet they were taken out this year. Why? Coincidence? At this point I want to recommend a movie starring Weird Al Gore called "An Inconvenient Truth". The movie is about carbon dioxide and its effect on global warming. A few interesting factoids from the movie. The snows of Kilimanjaro, which have been present since before the dawn of man, will disappear by next year. Another one, ten of the hottest years on record have occurred in the last 14 years. Impossible to dismiss with random statistics and NOT a coincidence.

There are many hurricanes, but the killer ones travel through the Gulf of Mexico and pick up enormous energy from the warm waters of the Gulf. The Gulf is becoming warmer and warmer year by year. Killer hurricanes, blowdowns, and other violent weather will become more and more common as the atmosphere becomes warmer.

There is something we can do about this. My Pontiac Vibe gets over 30 honest miles to the gallon and it's not an expensive hybrid or a teeny 2 seater. If everyone moved to smaller vehicles, the largest carbon dioxide producer in the world (the US) would move back toward 1980ish levels, even though the miles driven increases every year. Just think, a cheaper vehicle, less money for gasoline, and saving the earth at the same time. What a deal!

This is a picture of the hike along the "crest" of Crag Crest. You might be able to see one of my hiking companions on the trail. She gives some idea of the width of the trail and the crest. Summer is the best time to hike this trail, because there are fewer rainy days and the temperature is in the pleasant 70's because of the altitude.

At the top of Crag Crest, you have a 360 degree view. In this picture, the line of green trees stops at the edge of the Mesa, and you can see the Bookcliffs to the north. The tiny flowers in the lower left corner are wild columbines, the state flower of Colorado.

The elevation change for this hike was about 800 feet, to get to an elevation of about 11,100 feet. 60+ year old women did this hike with me. You probably can do this hike, too. And if you look around, you might see the world in a slightly different way.