Hard not to go back to this place! Today I explored around Sunset and Summit trails. These are both close to the top of a cliff and views into the valley. You need to ski off the trail to get to the views and edge. I went out in a number of places. There is also some steep skiing near this edge. After that I skied some of the groomers in this area. All good!
Cross country skiing today in the Mesa Lakes area. I parked at a small lot that is right off the road about four miles before Grand Mesa Nordic. I first went behind the Mesa Lakes Ranger Station which is below the first large lake you get to. This trail isn't used much and it looked like I was the first skier since the snow. It is a fairly consistent downhill near the river with some steeper areas. I came back up this trail and then went around the dam to the West Branch Trail. I took this out to the top of Powder Horn and a little beyond. This trail has some small ups and downs. Mainly cruising in the forest with a few lake crossings. Very nice area! Across the street from the parking area is another area of trails to check out some day.
This is a 6+ mile RT hike from the Devils Kitchen area. It isn't all that exciting compared to other hikes in this area. It goes steadily up and you have some good views down into the valley. You can see to Palisade as Mt Garfield is in the view at one point. Only about .5 miles from the parking lot you can head off the trail for a little bit and get to some interesting petroglyphs. It was a cloud and sun day. Sometimes the clouds are welcome as it gets pretty warm with the sun reflecting off the snow.
The Grand Mesa is a special place. I have not been there a lot but every time so far it has been amazing. There is about half the snow they would normally have right now. Even with that it was very nice today with about a 2 foot base. There is a large network of groomed trails and then you can also go anywhere you want. The woods are not dense in most places. I generally did a large loop clockwise starting up on Summit trail. I went off of Summit trail near the end and skied into a very nice area that had some pretty good pitches. A fair amount of snow though so breaking trail up hill wasn't easy. I parked at the main Grand Mesa Nordic center. They are just finishing a building that will be a warming area and also storage for the grooming equipment. There are two other parking areas and a number of other areas you can just ski off of the groomed trails. This is 60 miles from the house. 30 miles of highway and 30 miles in a very interesting canyon followed by a steep switch back climb to the mesa. 5000 foot elevation gain in the last 15 miles. Not a boring drive and there are usually big horn sheep around. You need to be careful as they go into the road on occasion.
