Today started with our regularly scheduled Teams meeting with the Leadership at VideoRay.  Immediately afterwards we left Monument Valley for Grand Junction, Colorado.  Tomorrow morning we’ll pick up Steve Van Meter, one of the three OWGs who has missed several recent trips.

Before lunch we saw a sign for Historic Bluff Fort in Bluff, UT.  So we decided to check it out, and it was very interesting and well done.  Not really a fort, it was an encampment of migrating Mormons who lived in the “fort” while building houses in town.

It was clear that being a pioneer was a real challenge, and many died as infants or children.  Crossing the mountains involved building roads in unbelievably difficult conditions.  And bad men killed good men regularly in the lawless wilderness.

The museum had great interpretive signs and restored houses.  It is clear that descendants of the original settlers and in general the local Mormon community take great pride in the museum.  And there was only one mention of early polygamy – a mention of a “plural wife” of a settler!

After an hour at the museum we hit the road through more beautiful scenery and arrived at our campground for the night – Camp Eddy .  While built in 2022, it seems new and is easily the nicest campground we’ve found so far – the best recreation facility, nicest showers, and best location – right along the Colorado river.

After Scott’s nap, but before dinner, we went on an eight mile bike ride along the Colorado river and across the river on the nearby pedestrian bridge.  The bike trail was very new and well maintained, and had instructional signs on the Colorado sugar beet industry and the use of radioactive fill and the remediation thereof.  We passed the Grand Junction recycling center and it is clear that they take recycling very seriously.

The entire area was made for enjoying the outdoors in a modern setting, including a dog park, separate skateboard and bike parks, a Zip line across the Colorado and many pleasant sitting areas.

Then dinner, thoughts of watching the rest of Stagecoach, but decided on bed…