Lands End Observatory

A visit to the Land's End Observatory is a great side trip while visiting the Grand Mesa. The drive across the mesa is beautiful, and after just 5 miles you'll find the historic Raber Cow Camp, an example of the camps that was used when cattle were moved up to the mesa to graze in the summer and which functioned until the 1960s. The observatory is 12 miles from the highway. Once the original visitor center, this log building was built by the Work Project Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps crews from 1936 to 1937. The access road to the observatory was built primarily by 200 World War I veterans between 1933 and 1934 and was once called Veterans Road. Just past Land's End the road begins a harrowing hairpin-turn descent of 6,000 feet to the valley below.

Sunset is a popular time to visit Land's End, and if the clouds cooperate, the views from the edge of the mesa can be spectacular. The La Sal Mountains of eastern Utah and the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, both about 70 miles away, can often be clearly seen, and the city of Grand Junction and the Colorado River are visible far below. This is a perfect place to see the structure of the Grand Mesa itself and marvel at how abruptly the flat mesa top drops off.