Biking in the Grand Valley

The Grand Valley is a cyclist's paradise, with an abundance of sunshine and spectacular views of the Colorado National Monument, Mount Garfield, the Colorado Grand Mesa and the Little Bookcliff Mountains. In April, May and Early June you can take advantage of the mild weather and desert wildflower blooms. In the Fall, the weather is near perfect and the fall color change in the Grand Valley is in full swing.

Willow Pond Bed & Breakfast offers locked storage for bikes and a washing/clean-up area.

Bike Rentals can be arranged thru Willow Pond and bikes delivered directly to the inn. You can also have your bike shipped to the inn for your trip...

Tour of the Moon is just around the corner, book now as we will book up!

Bike the Monument:

Willow Pond Bed & Breakfast is only 15 minutes from the East entrance of The Colorado National Monument...

Mountain Biking:

Willow Pond is only 12 miles from Fruita. The town of Fruita offers world class mountain bike trails http://www.gofruita.org/biking.html . Kokopeli's Trail, with 142 miles of trails sprawling from Loma, Colorado to Moab Utah, this trail loop offers a self-teaching trail to expert level trails, there really is a trail for everyone! Here is an in depth description of these trails: http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/moab/recreation/mountain_bike_trails/kokopelli_s_trail.html
Fruita is also home to the April Fruita Fat Tire Festival.

Willow Pond is only 1.5 hrs from Moab http://www.discovermoab.com/biking.htm and 2 hrs from Arches http://www.nps.gov/arch/. Lodging is limited in Moab, their B&B's fill up very quickly, so you might consider staying here in Grand Junction and making a day trip to Moab for biking, hiking and rafting or daytripping to Arches... Another reason to stay in Junction is that we are about 10-15 degrees cooler than Moab, so you can escape the heat! We suggest April-May and September-October for the mildest weather...

Road Biking:

You are in for a treat! Willow Pond is only 4 miles from the East entrance of the Colorado National Monument, which offers 33 miles of paved road on Rimrock Road, with a climb of 2300 vertical feet! The Grand Valley offers paved river front trails running from Palisade to Fruita, nearly 20 miles of paved trails along the Colorado River. Map of some local trails: http://www.gjcity.org/CityDeptWebPages/ParksRecreation/RiverfrontTrails/Pdf/trailmap.pdf
We are also only 2.5 miles from downtown where you can enjoy fine dining, shopping and the Art on the Corner Sculpture Series on Main Street, Grand Junction.

Willow Pond is only 12 miles from the town of Palisade where you can treat yourself to a beautiful ride through Colorado Wine Country, a wine and fruit lover's paradise. Palisade's Fruit Loop: http://rapidcreekcycles.com/images/map_lg.gif

Biking on the Colorado Grand Mesa is spectacular in fall with the color change, Crag's Crest Trail, Land's End Road, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, to mention just a few...

What about rain? Well, this is the desert, we get very little rain and when we do, it is usually over pretty quickly and the trails tend to dry up in a day or two...

Have fun out there!

Bike Shops:
http://thebikeshopgj.com/
Western Colorado Mountain Biking
Over the Edge Sports
Ruby Canyon Cycles
Single Tracks
Brown's Cycles

More info on biking:
http://www.bikerpellisports.com/
http://www.2pedal.com/multiDay/Kokopelli/
Read the recent New York Times Article about biking the Grand Valley: http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/travel/05biking.html
Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Assoc. http://www.copmoba.org/trails/maps/
Grand Mesa: http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/gmug/recreation/byways.shtml

"Must Stops" on your trip:

Willow Pond Bed & Breakfast only 3.5 hours from Denver, 5 hours from Salt Lake City...
Colorado National Monument
Golf at Redland's Mesa
Carlson Vineyards ( Cherry Wine with Enstrom's chocolate!)
Meadery of the Rockies
Enstrom's Candy
Moulin Rouge Cafe
662 on Rood
Pablo's Pizza
Zen Garden
Grand Valley Orchards
Wineries

Fall Specials!

We still have availability for Wine Fest Weekend!
September 15-18
Book online or call 970-243-4958.
$175 per night. See website for policies and more information.
3 night minimum, double occupancy only.
See the Winefest website for festival schedule and more information.

Mid-week Special:
Willow Suite only $125 per night, 2 night minimum, double occupancy only.
Sunday-Thursday, restrictions apply. Not valid holidays or special event dates.

No one will get hurt if you just give me the bean juice!

Don't do wineries? Here is a coffee, dessert and goodie tour for the teetotalers!

Of course, you can't miss Willow Pond's afternoon treats like- Sarah's famous chocolate chip cookies, brownies, peanut butter cookies, chocolate-chocolate chip cake and lemon cupcakes, but if you haven't had enough of the sweet stuff, here are some suggestions:

Coffee Muggers - www.coffeemuggers.com - (970) 255-0700
644 Main Street 970-255-0700
THE best coffee house in Grand Junction, live music and soon joining with La Paninoteca to offer wonderful baked goods and panini sandwiches!

Slice of Life Bakery in Palisade
105 W. 3rd Street, Palisade 970-464-0577
Not to be missed on your tour of the Grand Valley! Fresh baked breads, sweets, cream puffs, jams, cookies and ice cream sandwiches. Fresh peach pie when in season!
You will go in for one goody and come out with a box.

Enstrom's Candy: http://www.enstrom.com/

(970) 683-1000 701 Colorado Ave

In addition to the world famous toffee and candy, don't miss the ice cream bar, including my personal favorite, Enstrom's toffee ice cream! They also serve coffee, baked goods, sugar free items and have an internet cafe overlooking the factory through a big glass window...

so Willy Wonka!

Moulin Rouge French Bistro and Piano Bar

317 Main St. http://www.amyscourtyard.com/

Don't miss the chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce! Ooh, la, la! The perfect ending to a perfect meal!

Bin 707 http://www.bin707.com/DinnerMenu.pdf,

707 Horizon Dr. Grand Junction 970-243-0000

David recommends the vanilla bean cheesecake, I recommend the chocolate espresso torte with raspberry sauce! They have a beautiful bar and offer a nice selection of desert wines and ports for those of you who don't teetotal!

Main Street Bagels - www.mainstreetbagels.net - (970) 241-2740

559 Main St Grand Junction (970) 241-2740

The best bagel shop in town, don't miss their fresh baked sweets, bagel pizzas and my favorite bagel in the world, the pesto bagel. The Tassajara wheat bread is YUMMEEEE! Won't make it home! They also feature live music.

Colorado Legacy Coffee - http://www.legacycoffee.com/ - (970) 241-6558
1048 Independent Ave., GJ 970-241-6558
Great service at this little spot over by Sam's Club. This place roasts their own coffee and features a wide variety of boxed teas.

Fraps & Wraps‎ -
150 W Main St, Grand Junction, CO‎ - (970) 242-8400
This used to be Pappy's Ice Cream Parlor, now it is a wrap shop but they still have the ice cream bar.

June is busting out all over!!

Welcome to the first edition of the new and improved Willow Pond Blog!

To subscribe to Willow Pond's "News from the Pond", just send us an e-mail with "Subscribe" in the header, to unsubscribe, e-mail us with "unsubscribe" in the header...Or just subscribe to this blog and get ALL the news!

Well, summer is almost here, but you wouldn't know it from the rain and thunder we are having at the moment! The vegetable garden is growing, the lettuce and cilantro is ready to pick. The cherries and apricots are just around the corner! Gotta wait for those peaches though...


The ducks have returned to the pond and we can't wait for the babies to arrive! Looking over the fence you can see the newborn calves, they are adorable! Another treat has been standing out by the pond while the cliff swallows divebomb for insects, they are perfectly silent in flight and have no fear flying right beside you, within inches! We also have a new batch of goldfish in the pond. Last year's fish became heron food.


Last week, we had the pleasure of an outstanding houseconcert at Willow Pond. James Smith, classical guitarist and professor of music at USC, and Endre Balogh, world-reknowned violinist, performed an exquisite set of glorious music in the Garden Room. I cannot even describe it in words, if you haven't been to one of our concerts, you just don't know what you are missing!
See our music page for more info on houseconcerts and see http://www.endresphotos.com/ to learn more about the Balogh/Smith Duo.





This month we have Pete Kartsounes, eclectic singer/songwriter from Boulder coming to perform a benefit concert for Camp Wapiyapi, a camp for children with cancer. Pete has an amazing set of Bluegrass and blues inspired music, come to the concert and help those kiddos!
Monday, June 23, 2008
6:30pm
Pete Kartsounes (and friends)
$15.00 donation requested. Well-behaved children welcome.

Visit http://www.petekmusic/ or http://www.wapiyapi.org/ to learn more.

THE FARMER'S MARKET opens on June 12th, hallelujah! Just imagine all the yummy delights we will have cooked up for you when you visit!

Here are some other cool happenings in the Grand Valley this June:

13-14 Relay for Life
15 Father's Day and Lincoln Park Car Show
(How 'bout a Willow Pond getaway for ole' Dad??!!)
21 First day of Summer- Woo-hoo!!
26-29 Country Jam

We discovered a new treasure, Bangs Canyon and the Mica Mine Trail located on the BLM lands just east of the Colorado Monument. If you get a chance to do some hiking in Spring or Fall, this is a beautiful secluded little spot. Right now there is a cool little run-off stream going through the canyon, the wildflowers and wild roses are in full bloom and there are waterfalls and red rock canyon faces. The trail is beautifully maintained by local poet, Jeffrey Fleming, http://www.rockyireland.com/ and is easy enough for children to enjoy. it took us 45 minutes to get to the mine itself. We are hoping to find some more treasures to share with our readers, as we are looking to adopt a trail. We'll let you know when we do. There are some beautiful places on the BLM lands, they are neglected and abused, we are hoping to find a little corner and do our part to clean up and beautify. The Bookcliff Wild Horse Range is another one of these treasures.

In March, we celebrated our first anniversary here at Willow Pond. Over the past year, we have had the pleasure of meeting some really wonderful people from all over the world, some that are sure to be more than just return guests, but lifelong friends. Thank you everyone for making our first year so fruitful and wonderful!