Dave here...I was DESPERATE to get out of cubeland and needed a dose of desert reality so mid-week I quickly hatched a plan for a quick solo weekend to the Fruita/Grand Junction area for some new riding and climbing
Despite a very hectic week at work, I packed up the Toyota (new SUV - purdy!) and left home about 6:30pm Friday night.
My first destination was mountain biking at the Book Cliff area north of Fruita, CO. I'd heard good reports and the new bike was ready for adventure.
When I pulled into the area approaching midnight, I found all the normal available camping full. So I ended up doing a car bivy at one of the trail head parking lots. 
I awoke to clear morning skies and mild temperatures. After watching some of the local birds and eating breakfast, I set off on the bike for all new riding. :) The riding at the Book Cliffs is unlike most riding in Colorado with lots of quick and steep gully crossings and some pretty wild adobe ridge riding.
Also, some fast single track through the sage and field grass. It was really fun riding and I ended up doing about 25 miles of new trails before I was somewhat pooped. Some of the ridge ridging was a bit hair-ball, but I didn't chicken out. The new bike worked great.
Check out youtube videos of the Zippity Do Da mountain bike rides to check it out. One video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPMHvj9Ku7M.
After riding, I headed due south to the Colorado National Monument and got a campsite on the rim. I pulled the bike back out and rode the rim road about 8 miles to pick out locations for sunrise photos the following morning. I made a simple dinner of ramen and tuna, tried to get some sunset photos, and went to bed early. 
In the morning, I got up before sunrise to shoot some photos of the various formations in the Monument. After that, I had some breakfast and chatted with my campground neighbors who happened to be one of my co-workers (small world, eh?). Then I drove down the hill to the Monument Canyon Trailhead and hiked in rope solo a route called Desert Solitaire. 
This climb is a five pitch 5.11 route that ascends all the way to the top of buttress and is reportedly high-quality for the Monument. I hiked to the base with my 43 pound rope soloing pack and began the route. The first pitch is the crux and after that there was a fair bit of 5.10 climbing. I decided not to do the final 5.11 pitch as I had gotten a fair amount of exercise already and was somewhat tired of dealing with my rope solo rig. 
So, after three fun pitches I rapped down, packed up and drove home.I got home about 9pm, saw my girls, and went to sleep anticipating another "fantastic" week in cube land. :)
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