Topographic Views of Our Area

Click on the Maps for Larger Views — More Maps Coming as Soon as I Can Get Around to It!

There's no getting around the fact that landforms and location play a huge part in making the valley what it is (and isn't). This series of maps is intended to help give you a graphic idea of where the valley is located in relation to some better known Western Colorado towns and features. I hope you will also get a sense of just how much National Forest and other public grounds surround the relatively minor amount of private ground in the area, as well as just how much high country there is in the immediate area. "Live low, play high" is the motto of some of the local cognescenti.

Ok, here's what you are looking at on the top two maps. On the top map, the view is to the ESE from a substantially elevated viewpoint high above the Mesa & Garfield County line. Plateau Valley is in the center. The small blue area at the upper center is Vega Reservoir. The high country of the Grand Mesa is to the right and Battlement Mesa is to the left. I-70 is indicated by the red line running to the upper left. At the lower right, I-70 enters Grand Junction. The red line angling off to the right is Hwy. 50 running from GJ to Delta.

The second map is from the perspective you would get from high above Delta looking north. Hwy. 65 is the squiggly black line near the center. The "town" of Mesa is marked by the yellow square. Grand Juntion is to the left with the red line for I-70 in the upper left quarter. Vega Lake is the blue area at about the 2 o'clock positioin with the rest of the blue areas running across the bottom half indicating the dozens of small lakes for which Grand Mesa is well noted.