RSSTrail system expansion afoot
Mesa Land Trust director Rob Bleiberg walks around the area near Tabeguache Trail.
About 130 acres near the popular Lunch Loop trail system might have been yet another housing development dotting the slopes in the shadow of Colorado National Monument.
Instead, if current deals go through, the area that is called the Three Sisters property in reference to its trio of hills will play host to an increasing network of trails and open space to delight hikers and bikers.
“We’d love to connect the Lunch Loop to the Riverfront Trail,” said director Rob Bleiberg of the Mesa Land Trust, the agency working to secure the property on the northeast side of Monument Road. “The Lunch Loop gets a tremendous amount of use. This would be adding more access points.”
Mesa Land Trust applied for a $675,000 grant from Great Outdoors Colorado to purchase the land, and the local nonprofit should know whether it won the award by early December, Bleiberg said. Total costs of purchasing the land and creating a development plan to include trails and possibly an outdoor education center are estimated at $1.6 million, he said. The city of Grand Junction is working with the Three Sisters’ landowners to offer another parcel or parcels of land in other parts of the city to make up the difference in the purchase price.
Once the land is purchased and slated for conservation, the Mesa Land Trust will deed the parcel to the city.
The land is in close proximity to a newly created bike path that connects the Colorado Riverfront Trail to Monument Road. If the land deal goes through, the current Kids Meal trail could be extended along the property, parallel to Monument Road, encouraging more riders to bike from town.
The property is rumored to have been the first site where paleontologist Elmer Riggs discovered dinosaur bones in the Grand Valley. Plans for the site could include an interpretative walk, similar to the BLM’s Trail Through Time hike near Rabbit Valley exit off Interstate 70. Also, the property may contain the endangered hookless cactus, another reason to provide educational signage.
“It’s a very beautiful site and deserves to be protected,” Grand Junction City Council member Bennett Boeschenstein said. “It’s really an economic development thing. Believe it or not, mountain biking has really added to the tourism base. It’s a big thing for outdoor recreation.”
Grand Junction’s Downtown Development Authority and trail-building group Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association, COPMOBA, have submitted letters of support for the grant.
Grand Junction mayor Tom Kenyon said he hopes the city’s offer of a land swap along with the grant can settle up the Three Sisters’ purchase. During a boom time in Grand Junction, the Redlands area land may be deemed too valuable not to develop with houses.
“We have the opportunity still to preserve that corridor,” Kenyon said. “Having a connection to the trail system rather than houses is probably better for citizens in the long run.”
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