Tour of the Moon Byway
Tour of the Moon Byway is a scenic drive in Colorado. Within Colorado it covers roughly 10 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Tour of the Moon Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Tour of the Moon Byway refers to Rim Rock Drive, a 23-mile paved road through Colorado National Monument between the Grand Junction and Fruita entrances, famous today as a legendary cycling climb. The nickname dates to 1980-1988, when the road was a signature stage of the Coors International Bicycle Classic, its lunar, redrock-canyon scenery later giving the 1985 film American Flyers its climactic race. Drivers today follow the same route, threading past sheer sandstone monoliths and deep canyons through three unlit tunnels blasted straight through the rock. An annual cycling event still called the Tour of the Moon starts and finishes at the Grand Junction Convention Center, offering riders a choice between a 64-mile metric century with more than 3,900 feet of climbing through Fruita's farmland and the monument, or a shorter 41-mile loop with about 3,000 feet of gain; the National Park Service caps the field at 2,200 riders, and it sells out every year. Whether driven or ridden, the road's tight switchbacks and canyon-rim views are the same ones that made it a cycling legend in the first place.
- Rim Rock Drive
- 23 miles
- Colorado National Monument (Grand Junction-Fruita)
- 3 unlit rock tunnels
- Coors International Bicycle Classic (1980-88)
- American Flyers (1985 film)
- annual Tour of the Moon ride
Plan a drive on Tour of the Moon Byway →
About this drive
This is a scenic drive — a road worth taking for the views and the journey itself rather than the quickest line between two points.
Where to Stay along Tour of the Moon Byway
2 campgrounds and RV parks sit within about 5 miles of Tour of the Moon Byway.
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