The Colorado River is a defining feature of Grand Junction’s geography and a point of passage in Hig’s journey through the post-collapse West. Its corridor preserves pockets of living greenery, but the river’s presence does not spare the surrounding city from fire, drought, and ruin.

Setting and Geography

Grand Junction sprawls across desert hills where two rivers meet the urban landscape. The Colorado River also borders the city’s industrial district, with railway tracks and warehouses gathered along its banks. From the air, Hig sees the town extend toward the Book Cliffs, its built-up expanse threaded by cottonwoods.

The river is part of a landscape marked by diminishing water. Hig reflects on shrinking snowpack along the Continental Divide, earlier runoff, and creeks that run lower and become stonier by fall. The account distinguishes those declining streams from the larger rivers, which have not yet dried up; the Colorado River thus belongs to a threatened regional water system whose deterioration is visible in the surrounding vegetation.

The River in the Ruined City

The river parks retain the shade of cottonwood canopies, and some of the oldest, largest trees remain partly clothed in leaves despite the drought. Elsewhere, many street trees dependent on regular watering have become skeletal. The surviving patches of green punctuate the city like marks against a landscape otherwise defined by damage.

Grand Junction bears signs of destruction on an immense scale: cars are scorched, whole neighborhoods have burned, and human bones lie among the wreckage. Against this devastation, the river and its parks register not recovery but persistence. Living trees remain beside a city that has been almost wholly transformed by catastrophe.

Passage and Narrative Significance

During the approach to Grand Junction, Hig and his companions cross the big river before Pops joins them for the flight west. The journey places the river within a route of separation and reunion, then carries the travelers toward the city’s burned remains. The Colorado River is both a geographic guide through the region and a measure of the contrast between enduring natural features and the fragile human infrastructure gathered around them.