Forming high in the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado River weaves its way through the canyon to Grand Junction where it converges with the Gunnison River, before going to the Gulf of California.
Grand Junction – Western Plateau at 4,583′It the Mesa County Seat, aptly named for the abundance of flat topped mountains in the region. In fact, the largest and grandest one in the world, lies a little more than an hour east of town.
Where does Grand Junction get its water from? The Grand Junction and Kannah Creek water plants are supplied by surface water from the Kannah Creek watershed. This pristine source starts out as snowmelt and precipitation and covers 200 square miles on the top and west side of the Grand Mesa.
Employment and Industries in the Grand Junction, Colorado Area. Grand Junction is regarded as the region's commercial center. The primary factors for the economy are healthcare, agriculture, tourism, livestock and oil and gas. The area also includes light manufacturing.
This town, located in the Grand Valley, was first called Ute, then West Denver and finally came to be known as Grand Junction. The name stems from its location at the confluence—or junction—of the Gunnison and Colorado Rivers. Soon after, major irrigation turned the Grand Valley into a fertile agricultural area.
Grand Junction and the western slope of Colorado have the largest concentration of oil shale in the world. Oil shale can be mined and processed to produce oil. It's much more expensive to produce oil from oil shale, but in the gas crisis of the 70's, Exxon set up shop in Grand Junction to do just that.
Pueblo is still the state's most violent city per capita with a population over 100,000 people. The violent crime rate three times Colorado's at 1,142 violent crimes per 100,000. Aurora is now second with 1,118 violent crimes per 100,000, just ahead of Denver in third.
Grand Junction's Top 10 Safest Neighborhoods
- Fruitvale #10. According to NeighborhoodScout Fruitvale is a trendy area of Grand Junction.
- Center of Grand Junction #9. This area is a mixture of some older houses, and some newer.
- Highview Road #8.
- Pear Park #7.
- Rosevale #6.
- Highland Park #5.
- U. S. Highway 50 #4.
- Appleton #3.
Grand Junction's housing expenses are 7% lower than the national average and the utility prices are 13% lower than the national average. Transportation expenses like bus fares and gas prices are 5% lower than the national average. Grand Junction has grocery prices that are 3% lower than the national average.
This small Colorado town offers retirees some big advantages. Residents 55 and older get a generous retirement-income exclusion from state taxes, and there is no inheritance or estate tax. Plus, living costs are comfortably below average.
Grand Junction is a small but rapidly growing town on the western desert slopes of the Rockies. Grand Junction does not excel in any category but does consistently well in all of them. The town is located at the junction of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers in a large mountain valley on the west slope of the Rockies.
Grand Junction is currently growing at a rate of 0.73% annually and its population has increased by 10.18% since the most recent census, which recorded a population of 58,566 in 2010. Grand Junction reached it's highest population of 64,529 in 2021.
The US average is 205 sunny days. Grand Junction gets some kind of precipitation, on average, 69 days per year.
Climate Averages.
| Grand Junction, Colorado | United States |
|---|
| Snowfall | 15.8 in. | 27.8 in. |
| Precipitation | 68.9 days | 106.2 days |
| Sunny | 245 days | 205 days |
| Avg. July High | 92.8° | 85.8° |
In Grand Junction, the summers are hot, dry, and mostly clear and the winters are short, very cold, snowy, and partly cloudy. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 20°F to 94°F and is rarely below 6°F or above 100°F.
Colorado Travel Facts
| Year Colorado Became a State: | 1876 |
|---|
| Highest Point: | 14,433 feet — Mount Elbert |
| Lowest Elevation: | 3,315 feet — the Arikaree River |
| Average Altitude: | 6,800 feet |
| Average days of sunshine per year along Colorado's Front Range | 300 |
Table
| Population | |
|---|
| Population, Census, April 1, 2020 | 65,560 |
| Population, Census, April 1, 2010 | 58,566 |
| Age and Sex | |
| Persons under 5 years, percent | î¡€î ¿ 6.0% |
Cities 50 miles from Grand Junction
- 50 miles: Eckert, CO.
- 49 miles: Orchard City, CO.
- 48 miles: Battlement Mesa, CO.
- 46 miles: Westwater, UT.
- 44 miles: Mesa Lakes, CO.
- 44 miles: Parachute, CO.
- 40 miles: Delta, CO.
- 36 miles: Utaline, CO.
| Colorado's 3rd congressional district |
|---|
| Distribution | 64.75% rural 35.25% urban |
| Population (2019) | 756,569 |
| Median household income | $59,973 |
| Ethnicity | 71.1% White 24.1% Hispanic 1.6% other 1.5% Two or more races 1.0% Black 0.7% Asian |
The Grand Mesa is an ancient volcano, estimated to be about 10 million years old. The volcano, located roughly one mile north of the town of Dotsero, isn't even close to the size of the largest in the world, but it still created a four-mile long lava flow, part of which I-70 crosses.
The distance between Grand Junction and Rocky Mountain National Park is 177 miles.
Grand Junction has been nicknamed "River City". It is near the midpoint of a 30-mile (48 km) arcing valley, known as the Grand Valley; since the late 19th century it has been a major fruit-growing region.
| Grand Junction, Colorado |
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| Website | |
About 50 kilometers from the Utah border, the city is surrounded by tremendous geographic diversity straddling two spectacular landscapes: the classic slickrock sandstone of the American Southwest and the Rocky Mountains' snow-capped peaks.
The Grand Mesa in Colorado is the largest flattop mountain in the world, encompassing more than 500 square miles and standing over 10,000 feet above sea level.
A mesa is a flat-topped mountain or hill. It is a wide, flat, elevated landform with steep sides. Mesa is a Spanish word that means table. The strong, durable rock that remains on top of a mesa is called caprock.
Denver is regarded as the Mile High City since its height is one mile – 5,280 feet – above ocean level. Denver is the main state house placed at precisely one mile in elevation.
The Book Cliffs are a series of desert mountains and cliffs in western Colorado and eastern Utah in the western United States. They are so named because the cliffs of Cretaceous sandstone that cap many of the south-facing buttes appear similar to a shelf of books.
The Grand Mesa is a large mesa in western Colorado in the United States. The mesa rises about 6,000 feet (1,800 m) above the surrounding river valleys, including the Grand Valley to the west, reaching an elevation of about 11,000 feet (3,400 m).
