Adventures around Fruita

We're currently staying in Fruita, probably for a few more days. Here are some pictures from the last two days, highlighting some of the things we have done.

 While Doug was still in town, we hiked McInnis Canyons. This is the Devils Canyon trail.

Left to right:  Doug, Daniel, and Brandon. Running ahead is Molly.

Molly cooling herself in the stream.

A collared lizard, one of two that we saw. Molly chased them away!

Daniel carried Molly when she got too warm, until we could find more water.

Waiting on Molly, who's splashing below the bridge.

A kangaroo mouse that was trapped in the women's restroom.

Colorado River.

Later that evening, Brandon, Alex, and I went to watch a rehearsal at Cavalcade, interspersed with trips to Copper Club to enjoy their locally-brewed beer. Brandon did an outstanding performance of "Sonata Pathetique" by Beethoven and will be playing that at the next monthly Variety Show!

 Exploring a house made of straw bales, Utah sand, and mud. Paleontologist, professor from CMU, and founder of Fruita's dinosaur museum, Jonathon, invited us over. It was through Cullen that we met him. Jonathon showed us several artifacts, fossils, bones, and other objects from around the world that he collects in his house.

        

 

 Jonathon and his son, Ian. After we were done talking about various objects in their house, Jonathan nonchalantly asked, "Do you want to blow up stuff?" Of course! So we head outside.

The exterior of their house.

Another house that hasn't been finished.

Our mission: to destroy a T.V. with a cannon that shoots golf balls.

Alex records Cullen, who hit the T.V. twice.

The result of Cullen's first shot.

 Cullen's second shot....

.....and the T.V. crashes to the ground!

A horse skull.

An elephant skull, minus the tusks.

 That's all for the tour. I couldn't possibly put pictures of everything that we saw on this post, 

or remember all that was said! Thank you, Jonathon and Ian, for showing us around and welcoming us into your house.

Afterwards, Alex, Brandon, Daniel, and I went to Colorado National Monument. We drove up the mesa, which didn't look so huge until we were up there! We drove higher and higher up the switchbacks, overlooking the canyons below and the cities of Fruita and Grand Junction in the distance. We then found a place to stop and hiked down into the canyon.

 We rounded a corner to see the sun lowering behind the rocks!

As the sun was setting, we turned around and made our journey back up-hill.

 After the climb back up to Alex's car, we left the park. With the windows rolled down, we drove down the mesa, admiring the lights of Fruita and Grand Junction in the distance and looking at the stars.

We made one last stop at a local grocery store to check the dumpster, just as they were throwing out some food. We found 4 huge boxes, mostly full of produce! We narrowed everything down to one box, plus 7 melons, to split between all of us.