Grand Mesa

Grand Mesa owes its flat top and its great size to volcanic rock. Millions of years ago, lava flows spread across the region and hardened into thick layers of basalt, an extremely hard and durable rock. That basalt cap protected the softer sedimentary layers beneath it from erosion, so as the surrounding country wore down over the ages, the lava-topped plateau was left standing high above it, its edges falling away in steep cliffs.

The same hard cap is why the top is so broad and level rather than sharp and peaked like most mountains. Grand Mesa is not a summit so much as a high tableland, tens of miles across, a landscape shaped by fire and then by ice, with the marks of ancient glaciers helping to scoop out the basins that hold its many lakes.

The single most striking feature of the mesa top is its water. More than three hundred lakes and reservoirs are scattered across the plateau, left by glaciers and by the way water pools on the hard basalt, making Grand Mesa a paradise for anglers who come for trout in cold, clear mountain water. Many of the lakes sit right along the roads and trails, easy to reach for a morning's fishing or an evening's paddle.

That abundance of water, combined with the cool elevation, keeps the top green and lush through the summer, a striking contrast to the parched valleys below. The lakes freeze over in winter, when the whole mesa disappears under deep snow, but through the warm months they draw families to fish, boat, and camp along their shores.

The mesa top is cloaked in dark forests of Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir, broken by extensive groves of aspen that make it one of the great places in Colorado to see fall color, when the whole plateau turns to shimmering gold. Wildflower meadows fill the open spaces in summer, and the cool, moist climate keeps everything green far longer than in the desert below.

The forests and meadows support abundant wildlife. Large elk and mule deer herds range across the mesa, black bears roam the forests, and the lakes and streams draw birds and beavers. The area was long known to the Ute people, whose homeland this high country is and who valued its cool summers and rich hunting, and their ties to the mesa remain part of its story.

The Grand Mesa Scenic and Historic Byway climbs from the valleys onto the top of the mesa and over it, one of the finest drives on the Western Slope, with sweeping overlooks from the rim and access to the lakes, campgrounds, and trailheads scattered across the plateau. It is the easiest way to experience the mesa, and a summer drive over the top is a highlight of the region.

Below, the towns of Cedaredge on the south and Mesa on the north serve as gateways, with Cedaredge sitting amid orchards on the mesa's apple-growing slopes. Grand Junction and the Grand Valley lie to the west, so the mesa makes an easy cool escape from the desert country, a high green retreat rising right out of the sagebrush.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.