Camping on the Grand Mesa

August 14-18

We pulled the camper over to the Grand Mesa on the western slope for a five-day trip. On the way there, we took the south route through Gunnison and Montrose. We drove some roads that we had never traveled on before, so that was fun! What we thought would be a 5 1/2 hour trip turned into about 7+ hours, so it was much later than we anticipated when we got to the campground. The Grand Mesa is really beautiful and had several lakes and lots of trees. Also, mosquitos. :/ Our campsite was great and it was just up and over a hill to get to one of the lakes so Charlie was able to fish just about whenever he wanted to. One evening, Molly went with Charlie to fish and she managed to pull out two lake trout in a matter of an hour! We had a lot of fun exploring the area, visiting the Grand Mesa visitor's center, doing a few hikes on the mesa, and traveling down to Palisade to check out town and all the peach orchards in the area. We went to the Peach Festival, watched a parade, and swam in an outdoor pool one afternoon, too. We drove the orchard route and stopped at several (a dozen or more!) orchards to look at their fruit stand or walk through the trees. We sampled lots of peaches! Molly, Charlie, and Matt even participated in a peach-eating contest at the Peach Festival. They didn't win unless you count the free peaches they got to eat. :) We ate a TON of peaches - did I mention that?! We brought home a few boxes to can and make peach jam and salsa with, and honestly, we just ate a lot of them, too. We made a peach cobbler over the campfire one night and it was maybe the most delicious thing we have ever made while camping. It was SO yummy! We stopped at a little bakery and had peach hand pies and other delicious treats one time, too. Also while we were camping, Matt and I celebrated our 17th anniversary! Happy anniversary to my sweetie! On our way home, we drove north and hopped on the interstate, so that shaved off a bit of our drive. It is a long trek over there, but it was so worth it!