Grand Junction Vacations, Grand Junction Vacation Reviews, Tourism Guide

This high desert community of nearly 50,000 population sits at the bottom of a very unique area for Colorado. It is named the Colorado National Monument. It is a series of canyons and mesas quite similar to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, but of course much smaller. If fact some homes have been built up into the close area and now have a view of those canyons form their back yards.

The city sits on the Colorado River where the Gunnison River connects from the south at the 4,597 foot elevation. The weather is semi-arid, with summer highs in the 90s and winter temperatures mild but cold. Seldom any snow. The growing season is much longer than most cities in Colorado causing them to produce a wide variety of produce.

The name "Grand" refers to the historical name of the upper Colorado River used by locals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which was renamed in 1921 and the word 'junction' is from the joining of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers. The city sits near the mid-point of a 30-mile (48 km) arcing valley, known as the Grand Valley, that is a major fruit-growing region, historically home to the Ute people and settled by white farmers in the 1880s.