Three Great Days in Fruita

Have you been feeling kinda over Moab lately? Looking for trails that aren’t as crowded, with beer that’s more available, or just not eager to drive 5.5 hours from Denver? Or perhaps you’re just a headless chicken enthusiast? If so, have I got the weekend getaway for you.

Fruita Mountain Biking - Day (and Night) One

My first pro tip about traveling to Fruita is that you should arrive around dinnertime, and stop in Grand Junction on your way (Grand Junction is on the way to Fruita from Denver, about 12 miles closer). The reason for this is that you can have a Tacoparty! I love planning vacations, meals, coffee, pretty much everything. And when I found Tacoparty on the internet, I knew we had to try it. It was not even a little disappointing. Dog friendly patio, amazing chunky fresh guacamole, and so many tacos (with handmade tortillas) that it’s not hard to overdo it slightly.

Following at least three tacos per person, keep going into Fruita. The selection of places to stay ranges from camping (honestly probably the most appropriate and best option), to motels, to AirBnB’s. It’s not a big town so I’d definitely plan in advance, especially if you’d like to reserve a camping spot. There’s a very nice State Park campground on the south side of I70.

The next morning, pop into Bestslope Coffee for a drink and a pastry or breakfast burrito. Since I knew I was writing a blog about the weekend, I felt it right to try both. I’d give the pastries a slight edge, but only slight.

But I know what you really want to know is where to ride mountain bikes. We tried the three must-do rides in the area, and I definitely have opinions. On our first morning, we headed out to Loma, which is about three minutes farther west on I70 than Fruita for what’s essentially this ride.

I really can’t say enough good things about this ride. The area is huge, you could easily stay busy riding different loops and configurations of the trails for days. It has a great mix of smooth, flowy sections, short, punchy climbs, and enough rocks to keep things interesting. I’d ride a trail bike there but the couple guys I rode with had cross country bikes (and better skills than me) and they were fine. The scenery is also just stunning. It’s totally different from riding on the Front Range or in the mountains - red rocks, contrasted with the Colorado River below, leading to huge views. I would park at the far trailhead (not the one right as you exit the highway), across from the Rustler’s Loop trailhead, to avoid a nasty climb out after your ride. And don’t forget sunscreen or a boatload of water, it’s very dry with no water available anywhere.

It’s also fun to watch people consider trying to ride down this totally crazy drop into Horsethief Bench. One of the drops is as tall as me!

Fruita Mountain Biking - Day Two

Okay, to be totally honest, I would probably consider just going back to Kokopelli / Loma for more loops. But that’s not what I would do if I were going to Fruita for the first time, which is the whole point of this article!

So I would start the day with more coffee, obviously, at Bestslope.

The Rabbit Valley to Western Rim ride is where I would recommend going on your second day in Fruita. How often do you get to ride across state lines on your mountain bike, unless you’re a total lunatic riding the Continental Divide or something? Not that often!

From a pure bike riding standpoint, this is not the best ride you’ll ever experience. There are generally a number of dirt bikes on the trails, which can be annoying (tho I found them to be pretty courteous). There are sandy sections, which is annoying, and will make your chain sound terrible. Also, make sure you have the MTB Project app on you for the ride because pretty much everyone took a wrong turn and ended up riding / walking along the Western Rim, thinking this must be wrong. But it really is worth it to do it once, because once you get out to the top of the Rim, and you’re riding along smooth, flowing singletrack looking out at the Colorado River and these insane valleys, with snowcapped mountains in the distance, it’s totally worth it.

After the ride (and possibly a trip to Dairy Queen which has the only ice cream in Fruita and is frankly still really good!), I would head to Hot Tomato Pizza on the early side. Fruita has set up a number of picnic tables downtown, so you can order, grab a beer or a cider, and wait for your pretty good pizza. As this is clearly an amateur travel blog, I did not get a picture of the pizza, or the picnic table!

Fruita Mountain Biking - Day Three

I personally woke up on Day Three of my Fruita adventure feeling pretty wrecked. My legs were more sore from the hike-a-bike sections of our first ride, but also in the first couple days of April, riding for three hours a day was …. a lot. We decided to head to the third can’t miss area in Fruita, the 18 Road Trails. These seemed to me to be the after work ride for locals. Frankly, while these were not my favorite, it would be pretty amazing to have this variety available to ride within a 20 minute drive whenever you feel like it.

18 Road has a number of smaller loops so you can design a ride anywhere from 25 minutes to several hours in length. It’s also close to a literal ton of dispersed camping, which is really cool. Probably the least technical of anything we rode all weekend, it’s mostly smooth and well designed singletrack. I personally didn’t love riding along ridgelines and scaring the crap out of myself making a 90 degree turn into a steep descent, but I think if you tried it more than once (and to be fair this was only on the Zippity Loop), it wouldn’t seem as intense.

I’m really glad we checked out 18 Road, but I personally wouldn’t necessarily go back unless we felt like doing some camping very close.

Following this ride, I strongly recommend a Mountain Berry Bowl from the truck next to Bestslope, and a second coffee for the road. Or perhaps more tacos for lunch.

Fruita Mountain Biking - The Wrap Up

In general I would highly, highly recommend checking out Fruita. Especially if you enjoy traveling with your dog, it is incredibly dog friendly - every ride we did allowed off leash dogs, and the loops are great for a ride with your best pal before you head out for a longer loop. The town was way more charming than I expected (this is honestly because I’m from Denver and we have a weird Front Range / Western Slope thing), to the point that we considered researching opening our own motel there. And if it’s still snowy in Denver, you can actually get out on your mountain bike, on some of the best trails I’ve ever ridden. If you get out to Fruita, let me know what you think of this guide!