Redlands Loop Paved Trail in Grand Junction: What Changed

For twenty years, riding or walking from a Redlands cul-de-sac to the base of the Colorado National Monument meant one of two things: load the bike, or share a shoulder on Monument Road with pickup trucks going forty-five. That equation quietly ended this spring, and most of the people it affects most haven't fully absorbed it yet.

On May 20, 2025, the City of Grand Junction and Colorado West Land Trust held a chain-breaking ceremony at the Lunch Loops Trailhead to mark the completion of the final phase of the Monument Trail. The paved segment runs from Lunch Loops west to the Jurassic Flats Open Space along South Camp Road, and it closes the last gap in what's now called the Redlands Loop.

The Loop is ten miles. It's fully paved. It connects Lunch Loops, Connected Lakes State Park, the Audubon Preserve, and the Riverfront Trail in a continuous, off-street ring. If you live in the Redlands, that changes the geometry of your day more than any road project has in a decade.

What the New Segment Actually Is

The final phase is a three-mile paved path along Monument Road, tied into the first phase, which opened in 2019 and connected the Lunch Loops Trailhead to the Riverfront Trail. Take them together and, as Grand Junction Public Works Director Trent Prall described it, you get a ten-mile loop through the Redlands, or an eleven-mile loop if you cross to the north side of the river.

The piece worth pausing on is the alignment. Colorado West Land Trust started assembling land along the Monument Road corridor with the purchase of the Three Sisters property in 2012. Since then, the Land Trust has worked through nine real estate transactions to conserve 213 acres of public open space along the corridor and has raised more than $5 million for acquisition and trail construction. The final segment was funded in part by a $500,000 Great Outdoors Colorado grant, following an earlier $1.5 million GOCO grant that funded the first phase from downtown to the Lunch Loops Trailhead.

Those numbers matter because they explain why the Loop feels different from a typical bike path. It isn't a stripe painted next to a road. It's a corridor of protected open space with a paved trail running through it, which is a very different thing to walk your kids on.

"This trailhead is one of the most popular here in Mesa County, particularly among locals. It will allow many more people to reach the Lunch Loop trail by bike, experience the scenery, the bike park, the trails, the connection to each other and our outdoors, all without the use of a car." — Trent Prall, Grand Junction Public Works

The Small Detail That Makes the Loop Work

Trail projects tend to fail at intersections, and the intersection everyone worried about was the trail's crossing of Monument Road. The city's answer is a HAWK signal, described by Public Works as Mesa County's first high-intensity activated pedestrian crosswalk.

The mechanics are worth knowing before you use it the first time. The signal rests dark until a pedestrian or rider activates it. Drivers then see a flashing yellow, a solid yellow, and finally solid double reds. Once the crossing clears, the signal flashes red, and drivers may proceed when it's clear. If you've only ever seen a standard stoplight, the flashing red phase is the part that trips people up. Treat it like a stop sign.

For a resident, the HAWK is the difference between telling a twelve-year-old they can ride to the Lunch Loops on their own and telling them they can't. That's the practical shift.

The Lunch Loops Bike Park Is Getting Its First Real Refresh in a Decade

The paved Loop drops you at a trailhead that is itself in the middle of a rebuild. The Lunch Loops Trailhead recorded 227,000 visitors last year, and the bike park there was last touched about ten years ago on what Colorado Plateau Mountain Bike Trail Association Executive Director Faith Rodriguez has publicly acknowledged was a very small budget. The current project is a $225,000 revamp, led by Spencer Rugland of Thunderbird Trail Works under COPMOBA.

What's already on the ground and what's coming:

• A $10,000 dual slalom course, already open to the public and used for a recent COPMOBA and Grand Valley Youth Cycling Club event
• A larger overhaul planned for fall 2026 focused on beginner and intermediate jump lines
• Tweaks to the dual slalom after fall construction, based on how the current build is riding

If you have a kid who has been riding pump tracks and is ready for something slightly more consequential, the beginner and intermediate jump lines coming this fall are the reason to keep an eye on the trailhead calendar.

The Rule Every New Rider Learns the Hard Way

A short warning that will save you a drivetrain. The Lunch Loops trails are cut through expansive clay soils, and when they're wet the tread turns into what one longtime trail description accurately calls greased peanut butter. Riders who ignore this come back covered in grey mud, having gouged ruts into the tread and shortened the life of every bearing on the bike.

The rule is simple. If it rained last night, ride the paved Loop instead. That's part of what the finished Loop gives you: an all-weather ride that doesn't force a choice between staying home and damaging the singletrack. You can put in an honest hour on pavement, get back to the driveway, and leave the technical trails alone until they dry.

Three Ways to Actually Use the Loop This Month

The Loop is more useful the more concretely you plan around it. A few starting points that reflect how the pieces now fit together:

1. The morning water loop. Start anywhere on the Riverfront Trail, ride through Connected Lakes State Park, pick up the Monument Trail near the Lunch Loops Trailhead, continue west to Jurassic Flats, and return via the Audubon Preserve section. Roughly ten miles, mostly shaded stretches through the cottonwoods on the river side, exposed and hot on the Monument Road side. Bring more water than you think.
2. Coffee, then climb. Ride the paved Loop from a Redlands address to the Lunch Loops Trailhead, then hand off pavement for singletrack. The classic beginner-friendly introduction, called the Lite Lunch Loop by regulars, links Pet-e-Kes up to High Noon, across to Raven's Ridge, down Curt's Down, to Curt's Lane. Return on pavement.
3. The kid trip. Park at the Riverfront and ride the paved Loop to the new dual slalom course at the bike park. It's a legitimate destination now instead of a warmup. The HAWK crossing is the safety moment. Walk it the first time so everyone understands the signal.

What This Means for the Redlands, Quietly

The Loop is a recreation project on paper. In practice it's an access project, and access projects tend to change how people use their neighborhoods without anyone making a big announcement about it. A paved, off-street ring that connects the Lunch Loops, Connected Lakes, the Audubon Preserve, and the Riverfront isn't just something to check off on a Saturday. It's a piece of daily infrastructure. It's the reason a Redlands garage now needs a decent bike hook more than it needs a second rack for road tires.

If you've lived here long enough to remember the 2004 Redlands neighborhood plan that first identified this corridor as a priority, the interesting part is that the vision finally arrived. If you moved here more recently, the interesting part is that you get to use it without having sat through any of the meetings.

Either way, the trailheads are five minutes from your front door. Go find the new HAWK signal, learn how it behaves, ride out to Jurassic Flats, and come home the long way through Connected Lakes. It's a different Redlands than it was a year ago.

If you're thinking about where in the Redlands puts you closest to the Loop, or you're weighing a move within the Grand Valley and want to talk through how the finished trail network changes what you'd look for in a home, I'd be glad to walk through it with you. Reach out through Michelle Ritter to schedule a conversation or request a home valuation. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed; please verify independently.