The next morning of our Road Trip from West Virginia to Colorado (12/2), we happily left Denver as early as possible (Hotel Teatro’s “Nickel” restaurant being closed, of course), and drove west towards Grand Junction. Within minutes of leaving Denver we finally- and delightedly- saw the Colorado of our dreams on the horizon: the magnificent snow-peaked Rocky Mountains! And all I could think of was the background cardboard stage set of the Alps from my childhood “Showboat” productions of Heidi… (See my previous post here for more on “Showboat”…)
We stopped first at the Pahaska Cafe and Gift Shop, up on the snowy mountain at Buffalo Bill’s Gravesite: http://www.buffalobill.org/ in Golden, Colorado, where we had a hearty, hot, made-to-order breakfast, served by nice people- with no lectures! 🙂 Although the museum was closed, we hiked up the hill to the gravesite on Lookout Mountain, where we could see the view of the Great Plains and the Rockies Buffalo Bill so loved…
We had lunch at a winery I found on my GPS, and which I called first to make 100% sure they were open and serving: the Continental Divide Winery in Breckenridge: https://www.breckwinery.com/, the world’s highest altitude winery! Although we had to have our wine tasting sitting outside, wearing our coats, it was at least at a nice firepit table, and not miserably cold, and we were able to get lunch delivered to our table from the restaurant across from the winery. It was a “Real Colorado Experience In The Era of COVID”, and we strove to make it as much fun as possible! But I have to say, that, unlike at most every other winery we visited on our trip, we didn’t buy any wine here, as it wasn’t the kind of tasting experience that was conducive to that. Wine tastings are fun when you can enjoy them while chatting with the winery staff, learning about the wines and the area, and made to feel welcome- that is what makes you want to take a bottle or two home…
Driving west across Colorado was Very beautiful, and we saw a lot of gorgeous scenery, some extremely cool mountain roads and tunnels, the No Name Rest Area, (which has a plaque explaining the development of the special engineering features of the section of I-70 that runs through the canyon), and a highly photogenic mountain goat, who posed for a close-up…
Arriving in Grand Junction that afternoon, we found our B&B, Castle Creek Manor: https://www.castlecreekmanor.com/live/ (which I had also booked using our Capital One credit card points), and checked into our lovely “Kokopelli Guest Room”, which had a working fireplace and a Jacuzzi tub 🙂 We highly recommend this B&B if you are going to Grand Junction!
We relaxed a bit, and then went off to have one of THE BEST DINNERS of our trip at Bin 707 Foodbar: http://www.bin707.com/ Dan had been in Grand Junction decades ago when he was serving in the US Army and doing “survival training” up in the mountains, and at that time GJ was a sleepy “one horse” town and definitely not a “foodie” destination- but it is now! In planning our trip online I discovered several fine restaurants, and Bin 707 struck me as the most inventive, featuring a locally-sourced, seasonal, farm-to-table menu: http://www.bin707.com/menus Although they had adorable little greenhouses for outdoor dining, they honestly weren’t warm enough, so we dined inside, and enjoyed a truly delicious dinner, starting with Elk Tartare, served with a Plum Tapenade and an Apple BĂ©arnaise, followed by Pan-Seared Duck Breast (me) and Pork Katsu (Dan), served with local mushrooms and Oregon black truffles, and topped off with samplers of fine Colorado whiskeys, including a delightfully smooth one from the Peach Street Distillery in Palisade! We HIGHLY recommend Bin 707 Foodbar if you are lucky enough to get to Grand Junction! And note that, unlike Denver, Grand Junction IS open for business- we were made welcome every place we went there!
Elk Tartare 
Bin707 Foodbar Dinner 
Bin707 Foodbar 
Colorado Whisky Sampler
The next morning (12/3) we had a lovely hot breakfast at our B&B, with great Colorado Legacy Coffee, from a local, Grand Junction coffee roaster, and spent some time at the Museum of the West: https://museumofwesternco.com/museum-of-the-west/ in town, which had a very interesting exhibit on the “Old Spanish Trail.” Until 1821, the Grand Valley was part of the kingdom of Spain, and during the early and mid 1700’s, hardy Spanish and Mexican soldiers, explorers, and priests poked and prodded through the region. In 1776, two explorers, calling themselves the “Dominguez-Escalante party”, led a large group of people on this wagon route, exploring a path from Santa Fe to California. Some of the Old West’s best known explorers: Kit Carson, John Charles Fremont and Capt. John Gunnison – all passed through the Grand Valley in the 1840’s and 1850’s For more on Grand Junction’s interesting history, see: https://www.visitgrandjunction.com/history-grand-junction and https://www.theodysseyonline.com/grand-junction-colorado
We stopped at Palisade, a Colorado Winery Town of the first stripe (the Palisade area hosts 75 percent of Colorado’s premium wine grape vineyards!), and had a pre-lunch wine tasting at Grande River Vineyards– which, we learned, is for sale- for about 2 million dollars! There are so many wineries in Palisade, not to mention cideries and breweries, that you could happily & easily spend a week here, going from one to the next! I basically made Dan promise we’d come back here on our way home after the hunt so we could at least get to a few of them… We had lunch at the Palisades Brewing Company, enjoying a sampler of their beers with our house-smoked Pastrami and Brisket sandwiches, including their hilariously named “Dirty Hippie” beer! As no one on staff was over 25, I had to ask how the Hippie connection originated, and was told that the owners are “big Grateful Dead fans”…
Driving north to Meeker we saw wild turkeys, lots of cattle, and more beautiful (and quite different) scenery…
Stopped to fill up the tank at the Kum & Go gas station near Meeker, and for some odd reason the name of the chain made me laugh…
Next: Elk Hunting in northwest Colorado!
