Coal Gulch on Memorial Day

[IntrepidXJ]

Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 2008

Amanda head to work, but I headed out and did a little local exploring for a few hours today. I started out by driving north out of Fruita towards the Book Cliffs and into Coal Gulch. Then I ended up climbing out of Coal Gulch onto Ross Ridge.

I had initially passed the turnoff for Coal Gulch and went up the wrong canyon a little ways before figuring out my mistake and turning around, but I did find a side trail in that area that I am going to have to research and check out some other time. After finding the right road I continued climbing up into the Book Cliffs. The trail started out easy and got rougher the higher you climbed. Once I made it to Ross Ridge, the trail got very rough, steep and narrow. The trail eventually dead-ends at a nice overlook of the Grand Valley. Here's a few pictures from my day...

One of the side trails I will have to get back to in the future.



Climbing out of Coal Gulch.



The Book Cliffs



Very steep, narrow and rutted out



The trail down into Hunter Canyon (Also known as 21 Road)



Coal mine