Grand Junction to Vail: What's Actually Out There

I've driven the I-70 corridor between Grand Junction and Vail for over thirty years. Thousands of trips. Two flats. Both in Glenwood Canyon. Both in a Sprinter.

Flying into a diverted or alternate airport? We cover the whole corridor, including Eagle Airport to Vail and Denver to Aspen.

The first flat was at Bair Ranch, headed out for a long weekend of dirt biking with my son Enzo. The van was one of our old fleet Sprinters, the ones that age out of client service and become my personal moto-camping rigs. Bikes loaded in the back, tools and food for camp, the whole weekend ahead of us. Pulled into Bair Ranch with a flat, jacked it up, swapped the spare on, back rolling in under twenty minutes. Enzo on the lug wrench. Both of us laughing about it by the time we hit the next exit. That's the easy version.

The second one was a current fleet Sprinter at 3 AM in a winter snowstorm. Empty, heading up the canyon to Vail for an early-morning client pickup, the kind of run nobody sees that has to happen before the work even starts. Snow falling sideways, no traffic, no help.

First rule I tell any of our drivers: never stop on the highway if you can avoid it. Don't even pull over on the shoulder. Get off at the next exit or rest stop, even if you have to drive on the rim to get there.

Better a destroyed wheel than a driver clipped by a semi. Glenwood Canyon at 3 AM in a snowstorm is exactly the kind of place that teaches you that rule, whether you want to learn it or not.

I made it to the next pulloff. Then the work started.

If you've never changed a tire on a Sprinter, here's what you don't know: the spare lives in a carrier slung under the chassis. You lie on your back on the pavement, unlatch the carrier from underneath the van, and lower the spare down over your head like a bench press. At 3 AM in the canyon I was lying in the slush, snow falling on my face, water soaking through everything I was wearing. Hands numb before the spare hit the ground. Then I had to mount it, torque the lugs, and bench-press the dead flat back up into the carrier and re-latch it, holding it overhead in the same slush.

Took way longer than twenty minutes. By the time I rolled into the lobby in Vail with the warm-up done and the windshield clear, my client had no idea any of it had happened. That's how it's supposed to work.

147 Miles, One Road, No Turns

From the GJT terminal to the Vail Village exit is 147.5 miles on I-70 East. Roughly two hours in clear conditions, a little longer eastbound because you're climbing the whole way. You leave Grand Junction at about 4,580 feet and roll into Vail at 8,150 feet, a 3,500-foot climb over the course of the drive.

There are no turns. There are no high passes. There is no other route. It's just I-70 the whole way, following the Colorado River up from the high desert into the Rockies.

And the truth is, most people who fly into GJT and ride up to Vail have no idea what's out the window.

Here's what's actually out there.

Out of GJT and Into the Grand Valley

You leave the airport at Exit 31 / Horizon Drive and head east on I-70 into the heart of the Grand Valley. Look back over your right shoulder as you climb out of town and you'll catch the red sandstone walls of the Colorado National Monument rising up to the southwest, Independence Monument, Monument Canyon, the Rim Rock Drive that was carved through the cliffs by the CCC during the Depression. The Monument is one of the most underrated parks in the National Park System, but the entrance is on the west side of Grand Junction, not on the airport side. If you've got a free morning before your flight out, drive Rim Rock. You won't regret it.

Mount Garfield rises on your left out the driver's side window, the flat-topped mesa that signals you're in the Grand Valley proper. Out the right window, the Grand Mesa is starting to come into view to the south. We'll get to her in a minute.

Palisade, Peaches, and the Canal That Built It All

East of Grand Junction is Palisade. Exit 42. If it's August through October, get off and grab a basket of peaches at one of the farm stands on Highway 6. There's nothing like a Palisade peach three days off the tree, the climate here, with hot days and cool nights coming off the Grand Mesa, grows them like nowhere else on earth.

Palisade is also Colorado wine country. The Grand Valley AVA has 25-plus wineries, most of them within five miles of this exit. If you're flying into GJT and have an afternoon to spare before driving to Vail, Palisade is the stop. Wineries with patios, peach farms, the river. Slow it down.

Look south out the right side of the van and you'll see the Grand Mesa rising up out of the valley floor, flat as a tabletop, dark with timber on top. The world's largest flat-top mountain. More than 300 lakes are scattered across the top of it, some of the best high-country lake fishing in Colorado. The Mesa stays on your right window pretty much all the way to De Beque.

One thing most travelers driving past Palisade have no idea about: none of this exists without the Government Highline Canal. Before 1915 the Grand Valley was high desert, sage, rabbitbrush, no peaches, no vineyards, no orchards. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built a diversion dam on the Colorado River at Cameo, the Roller Dam, finished in 1915, with the first roller gates of their kind designed in the United States, and dug 55 miles of main canal across the north side of the valley. 1,675 cubic feet per second of Colorado River water turned the desert into 50,000 acres of irrigated farmland almost overnight. The peaches on that farm stand. The grapes in those bottles. The whole Grand Valley as you see it. All of it came from one canal, one dam, finished a hundred years ago.

Coming up east of Palisade you'll see the old power plant on the left side of the highway. That's Cameo, same diversion. Same roller dam. Drive past it slow if you know what you're looking at.

De Beque Canyon, The Prettiest Stretch You've Never Heard Of

East of Palisade the highway drops into De Beque Canyon. Red and tan striped sandstone walls, the Colorado River running tight beside you, the canyon narrowing down. Cell service drops out. Download your music before you leave.

This is the prettiest stretch of the whole drive, and the one most people don't realize is coming. If Glenwood Canyon (which we'll get to) is the famous canyon on this road, De Beque is the one only the locals talk about.

De Beque Exit and Powderhorn

At Exit 62 / De Beque, the Grand Mesa is at her closest to the highway on your right. If you're headed up to Powderhorn, the small ski resort that sits on the north rim of the Mesa, this is your turn. South on 45½ Road, then Highway 65 up through the town of Mesa. Powderhorn is the westernmost ski resort in Colorado, hidden gem, 250 inches of dry powder, no lift lines. Hardly anyone outside the Western Slope knows about it.

Parachute, Rulison, the Old Boom Towns

East of De Beque you pass Parachute at Exit 75, old shale-oil boom town from the early '80s. When Exxon shut down the operation on what's still called "Black Sunday" out here, the whole town nearly emptied overnight. Today it's quiet. Battlement Mesa sits up on the south side.

You're now in the heart of the Bookcliffs country. Look north out the driver's side window and you'll see them, long, layered, stair-step ridges that run alongside I-70 for the next 100 miles, all the way back into Utah. Once you see them, they don't leave you. They're the northern wall of the Grand Valley.

Rifle and Atlantic Aviation

Exit 90 is Rifle. This one deserves more than a passing mention.

Rifle Garfield County Airport (RIL) is one of Western Colorado's best-kept secrets. Atlantic Aviation runs the FBO there, full-service jet handling, hangar space, fuel, customs with notice. RIL handles a serious amount of private aviation for our valley: corporate jets, charter ski groups, NetJets, and the heavy traffic that comes through for Birds of Prey race week in early December.

Here's the part most travelers don't realize: Rifle is the closest major airport to Vail with a real FBO. It's roughly 100 miles to Vail, 50 miles closer than GJT, and the drive has no high passes either. When EGE is weathered in or fully booked, when Aspen's runway is too short for your jet, when you want to skip the Denver chaos entirely, Rifle is the play. We run RIL transfers every week.

Aspen Exit and the Roaring Fork Valley

Past Rifle you'll pass Silt and New Castle, and then the Aspen exit at Glenwood Springs, Highway 82 south. Most folks don't realize Aspen and Snowmass are 40 miles up that road, not somewhere on I-70. Carbondale, Basalt, El Jebel, Snowmass, Aspen, the whole Roaring Fork Valley hangs off this one exit.

Glenwood Springs and Storm King

Right past the Aspen exit you roll into Glenwood Springs. It's a real town. The hot springs pool right off the I-70 exit was the biggest hot springs pool in the world when it was built. Doc Holliday is buried up on the hill at Linwood Cemetery (steep trail, worth the climb). The Hotel Colorado where Teddy Roosevelt and Al Capone both stayed. Iron Mountain Hot Springs and the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park on either end of town.

But look north as you pass Glenwood and you'll see Storm King Mountain.

That's where 14 wildland firefighters died on July 6, 1994, the South Canyon Fire. Dry lightning sparked it, the wind blew up on the third day, and they couldn't get out. The memorial is at Two Rivers Park in town. The trail to the burn site itself leaves from Exit 109, a steep mile and a half up to the crosses.

Drive past it slow.

Glenwood Canyon, Where I've Been Bitten Twice

Out of Glenwood Springs you drop into Glenwood Canyon. Twelve miles of two-lane interstate hugging the Colorado River, sheer 1,300-foot walls on both sides. This is one of the great engineering feats of American highway building, the canyon was so tight they had to stack the eastbound and westbound lanes on top of each other for stretches.

Bair Ranch rest area is at mile 129 if you need it, pull off and you can hear the Colorado River right below. That's where Enzo and I changed the easy one. Hanging Lake exit at mile 125. The lake itself is a turquoise jewel up a steep mile-and-change of trail; put it on your summer list. Grizzly Creek at mile 121. Then No Name at mile 119, actually the name of the town, not a placeholder.

I've driven this canyon with a Sprinter full of clients heading to Vail. I've driven it with skis on the roof and bikes in the back. I've driven it with rafts strapped on top. I've also changed two flat tires in it. The canyon doesn't care who you are or what you're doing in it.

Dotsero, Where Two Rivers Become One

You come out of Glenwood Canyon at Dotsero, Exit 133. This is where the Eagle River dumps into the Colorado. The confluence. From here east you're following the Eagle River up to Vail.

Colorado River Road turns north here, running 30 miles up the river to Burns and McCoy, the back way into the Flat Tops Wilderness and some of the best fly fishing in the state. If you've got a free afternoon in Vail, that's the day trip.

Eagle, EGE, and Gypsum

East of Dotsero is Gypsum at mile 50, keep an eye out for the giant cement plant tower on the right. Then Eagle County Regional Airport (EGE) at mile 38, the airport most ski-trip travelers fly into. Eagle at Exit 147 is the county seat.

The Eagle River is running tight beside you the whole way, Gold Medal trout water from where Gore Creek joins it in Vail all the way to its mouth at Dotsero.

Wolcott, Red Sky, Cordillera

At Wolcott, Exit 157, Highway 131 splits north, 68 miles up the Colorado River drainage to Steamboat Springs. This is also home to 4 Eagle Ranch (zip lines, horseback, the western dude-ranch experience), Eagle Springs (private golf course, 300 invite-only members, you're not getting on), and Red Sky Ranch (the Vail Resorts club with two championship courses, one Greg Norman, one Tom Fazio).

Past Wolcott the highway sweeps southwest through Bellyache and Red Canyon, a small hint of red rock that's a callback to the country you left behind in De Beque.

Edwards is Exit 163, real town with grocery stores, the Vail Valley hospital, a Costco a few miles up. Cordillera sits on the ridge above Edwards. Gated community. Championship golf up there if you can get past the gatehouse.

Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch, Arrowhead

Once you're past Edwards you're looking up at the three connected villages of Beaver Creek Resort: Beaver Creek, Bachelor Gulch, and Arrowhead. All on the same mountain, all ski-in/ski-out, all owned by Vail Resorts. The Ritz-Carlton tucked up in the trees at Bachelor Gulch. (I wrote the whole history of that ridge in another post, I worked up there in the '90s before any of it had a name.)

Avon is Exit 167, the base of Beaver Creek.

The Last Ten Miles into Vail

Past Avon, you've got EagleVail on your left, then Dowds Junction at Exit 171, where Highway 24 splits south to Minturn, Red Cliff, and Leadville. Through Dowds the canyon opens up and you're rolling into West Vail, then Vail Village proper.

147.5 miles. Two hours and change. The Sprinter pulls into the porte-cochère of whatever hotel my client is staying at. They've slept most of the way, or worked on their laptop, or watched the country roll by out the window. They didn't change a tire. They didn't check road conditions. They didn't lie under a van in the slush at 3 AM.

That's the job. That's what we sell.

What's West of GJT (Bonus Round)

I want to close with the part nobody asks about, what's west of Grand Junction, on past where most travelers' attention drops off.

Past the airport, I-70 keeps going another 35 miles before it crosses into Utah. Fruita at Exit 19, mountain bike mecca, Hot Tomato Pizza, the Dinosaur Journey Museum. Loma at Exit 15, boat launch and put-in for the Ruby-Horsethief float on the Colorado River. Mack at Exit 11, Kyla and I lived at 742 R Road for a year, neighbors with cattle and orchards, fifteen minutes from the Utah state line. That whole stretch is the agricultural Lower Valley, and it's where my heart is when the snow starts melting in the spring.

Cross over into Utah and you're at the Westwater Canyon put-in. Class III-IV whitewater, Skull Rapid, the Room of Doom, sandstone walls that turn gold at sunset. I've been camping at the put-in for over twenty years.

South of the Westwater airstrip is open BLM land. Slickrock, dry washes, no permits, no crowds. Mel's Loop is the dirt-bike classic out there. That's where Enzo and I go after we've done the easy tire change at Bair Ranch, tents pitched in the desert, bikes lined up, fire built, no cell service, three days of nothing.

That's the country west of GJT. Same I-70 corridor you'd be driving if you flew into Grand Junction on your way to Vail. It's the same road. It just keeps going.