Glade Park offers what few areas in the state can offer: solitude and independence. It's not a convenient location, requiring homeowners to either travel through the Colorado National Monument or take a meandering route up Little Park Road to get home. Either road can be treacherous in a snowstorm, with twists, turns and large drop-off points. Life at the top is no piece of cake, either; there are no restaurants, no schools within walking distance, no chain stores, and right now, there's not even mail delivery.

Some home sites on Glade Park have reliable wells, while other homeowners have to haul water or have it delivered to cisterns during the times when the wells run dry. There is no natural gas pipeline, either, so people depend on propane tanks. There's a small section of Glade Park that doesn't even have electricity. Life in rural solitude isn't always easy.

"The first thing on the list is buy a snowplow to clear the driveway," says Andy Hanks, who moved up to Glade Park less than a year ago with his wife and four kids. The Hanks own three four-wheel drive vehicles, and got all three of them stuck in the driveway trying to get out during a spring blizzard. They had to wait for the local snowplow driver to clear the road and get the vehicles out.

The inconvenience of the area appeals to the people who call Glade Park home. Zoning laws restrict home sites to at least 35 acres, which means there's plenty of elbowroom and open space. Homeowners can sit on their porches and watch the wildlife, although when Kristi Hanks saw a coyote out on patrol while her ten year old was doing chores in the barn, it didn't fill her with a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Homeowners have no need for elaborate landscaping on Glade Park; the natural vegetation provides plenty of beauty and privacy. Horseback riding, hiking, biking, or riding 4-wheelers is as close as the front door for many residents. Although neighbors may live far apart, they're always ready to lend a helping hand.

Throughout its hundred-year history, the Glade Park store and Post Office was the community gathering spot. That may change if the U.S. Post Office is successful in its attempt to install cluster boxes. Most Glade Park residents are unhappy with the idea, and it's not just because they won't have a chance to chat with neighbors at the Glade Park store when they pick up their mail. The store offers a secure location for mail delivery, and residents fear cluster mailboxes will be a prime target for vandals. Many of the residents on Glade Park are retired and depend on mail delivery for prescriptions. They don't want their medications to sit in cluster boxes where they'll be exposed to extreme temperatures.

The closure of the Post Office at the store has brought the community of Glade Park together in protest, especially since the postal system pulled the boxes out of the Glade Park Post Office without warning, before having the cluster boxes ready to take their place. It left residents with no mailing address and no choice but to drive down to the main Grand Junction Post Office to pick up their mail.

The other Glade Park institution is the Volunteer Fire Department and their summertime "Movies Under the Stars" fundraisers on Friday nights. The fire department is a non-tax entity relying on volunteers and donations to keep it going. The first movie this year will be "Racing Stripes," on June 2nd. Deb Trotter, Event Coordinator, hopes that the screen and sound system now in its second year will continue to draw plenty of folks out to the movies.

"Mostly what the locals do is come eat and go home," she says. "It's their Friday night social club."

Although there are no big housing developments on Glade Park, there are always homes and acreage available for sale. Locals joke that they don't want anyone else to move to their private paradise, but there's a strong sense of community that welcomes those who appreciate the beauty of Glade Park.

"I don't have a problem with people moving up here," says Trotter, "But move up here because you like what's here, not because you want to change it."

It's a sentiment most Glade Park residents share.

Busses start at 6:15 a.m.:

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• Wingate Elementary, 351 South Camp Road

MIDDLE SCHOOL
• Redlands Middle School, 2200 Broadway Street

HIGH SCHOOL
• Fruita Monument High School, 1102 Wildcat Avenue