Website header for GJ Hikes.
Sometimes you want some hiking ideas.
You want a website for ideas depicting something away from the favorite hikes found on sites such as the Hiking Project, but less of a tabula rasa of than CalTopo.
Well, such a site exists for the Grand Junction, CO area and a few hours of driving nearby. The site? GJ Hikes
GJ Hikes is a site I’ve been using for over five years. And many people seem to stumble upon on their own. When I planned backpacking trips around the Grand Junction area over the years and did research, I’d often browse this site. Though the hikes are all day hikes as far as I can tell, they often lead to much info that I can piece together to make a backpacking loop. The web site curator has 350 hikes as of this writing for Grand Junction alone.
The hikes typically have an overall route description, a downloadable map, GPX coordinates, the difficulty of the walk, mileage, elevation gain, trailhead directions, photos of tricky spots in the route with arrows draw in rather well, a rating system, and more. And, because of the day hiking nature of the site I suspect, GJ Hikes even gives phone reception information.
From GJ HIkes
All the info in an easy to read and intuitive format that gives what you need to hike. The site is not so much trip reports as a comprehensive online guidebook with many hikes all over the area.
And I do mean all over. And comprehensive. GJ Hikes currently has ~1500+ hikes available to read! Whoever the mysterious person is, they get out. A lot.
Now that I am in Moab and often looking for hikes of various lengths to do during the day, I often refer to GJ Hikes again. GJ Hikes has about 200 hikes just in Moab. From roadside strolls to strenuous all-day hikes. Some are even mountain bikes rides.
The hikes range from the moderately well known such as Fisher Towers to obscure ones that are never on Instagram. No Delicate Arch info on this site. 🙂
If you are looking for some hikes on a somewhat beaten path, or the more obscure, with Grand Junction as an epicenter you can’t go wrong with a GJ HIkes as a resource to check.
As GJ Hikes says at the end of many reports: “If you would like to see it for yourself then all you have to do is ‘Take a hike.'”
After looking into trip planning for the Black Ridge Wilderness I came across GJ hikes and would agree, very good directional info and hike overviews for those interested in learning more about what the Colorado Plateau has to offer. Great place to start searching for hiking ideas in SW Colorado.