Mica Mine Trail, Grand Junction, CO (Saturday, June 22, 2019)

Our youngest daughter and her boyfriend came to Grand Junction to see us!  We wanted a dog friendly hike, so his dog Arrow could join us for the day, so we chose the Mica Mine Trail.  It's a beautiful, easy hike through the red rock formations near the Colorado National Monument.

Since it's called the Mica Mine Trail, the competition was on to see who could find the first piece of mica, and our daughter won.

The rock formations we were hiking through were very unique and beautiful.

At one point during our hike, the sky got very dark.

And soon afterward, it began to hail.  Not hard, but hard enough to hurt, so we had to seek cover under a bush.

By that point, we were just about at the abandoned mica mine.

The mica in the rock is very layered and flaky.

Steve and I had to rest while the kids continued to explore.

There are pieces laying everywhere around the mine.

You can peel off layers so thin that you can see through them.

After leaving the mine, we had a beautiful walk back to the car.

And then enjoyed some Rav-4 hood-top sushi for lunch.