One of the good road trips in North America is the few-hour (four or five, maybe) jaunt between Grand Junction and Nucla in Colorado. Blue Highway 141 carries you along the the spectacular Dolores River Canyon which is easy to think of as the Grand Canyon rendered as haiku.
It's mostly the West as God made it, although some ancient scaffolding and other hard-rock mining paraphernalia here and there provide evidence of human ambition even on sheer cliffs.
Fill the tank and take on water and vittles before you start. The canyon is full of a thousand nice things, but settlements aren't among them.
In Nucla maybe you can duplicate a pleasant hour Bob Kerr (ÅP, Denver) and I spent there when I discovered the place during mulie season in about 1973. We found an open business, a trading post with bar which happened to have some .30-30 Winchester rounds I was looking for. We bought them, then stepped into the bar area where our attention was politely directed to the "Check Your Guns" sign. I handed over my issue 1911A1 and Bob his big Ruger. We made one beer last and enjoyed trading a few words with the bar patrons -- three or four Indian persons, locals, pleasant guys.
Nice addition to your bucket list.
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