Yes it does…

Grand Junction is just over the Utah border on the west side of Colorado. We drove here from the Salt Lake City area, specifically Lehi, UT. It’s a short-ish drive, about four hours through some really spectacular scenery. The Wasatch Mountains run down the middle of the state. The road over them is smooth and fast and takes you through some amazing gorges.

Once through the mountains you see a lot of this:

It’s easy driving and the speed limit is 80. So, um, well, you know.

We arrived in Grand Junction in the mid-afternoon. It was hot and a bit muggy but we set out to explore downtown a bit. They have an extensive city art program called Art on the Corner. We liked a lot of it! It’s all over the map; here are two examples from the same intersection.

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Naturally we searched for a credit union for dinner. (See Day 11.) Instead, we found an excellent Italian restaurant called Il Bistro Italiano. The owners have Celiac so we were very confident that gluten-free would be well handled. Try the Rosetta (if you are not gluten-free.)

We never would have thought about staying in Grand Junction. We did as a side effect of wanting to spend a day driving through Colorado from West to East. It turns out to be a nice place to visit. It has a walkable, historic downtown. Good food, good art. Lots of intersting shops. We likely will return.

Oh, and, the hotel, which is striclty mediocre, has one thing I’ve never seen before.

MIles driven	Time on the road
255	3:51

The pancakes are ok…