"The orchards and vineyards are really important to our identity," says Tina Darrah, the community development director for the town of Palisade, who's excited about the new plan for the town. "We haven't had a plan. The clear direction is preserving the agricultural heritage."

That's good news for Grand Valley residents who savor Palisade peaches. It also reinforces the fledgling agri-tourism business in the area. The 2007 Fruit and Vineyard map includes not just the wineries, but several different orchards and a coffee roaster, as well. The town hosts a peach festival to celebrate the orchards, and a wine festival to celebrate the vineyards, and both draw thousands of attendees to Palisade. The town's Sunday farmers market is also popular with the growers who appreciate the local outlet, residents who enjoy the chance to buy fresh produce, and visitors who appreciate the slice of life in a small town.

Although plans are in place for a new hotel in Palisade by 2008, the hotel won't be a run-of-the-mill chain that looks like every other chain on the Western Slope.

"The goal of owner is to keep it low-key and do it in keeping with the wine country theme," says Leif Johnson, with the Palisade Chamber of Commerce.

Although Grande River Vineyards owners Steve and Naomi Smith have sold much of the vineyard's farmland at an auction a year ago, the winery will continue its popular summer concert series. Two benefit concerts are scheduled; the July concert will feature Quemondo and benefit migrant workers. Hazel Miller will be featured at the August Partners concert. Dates for other concerts are undetermined.

"If anyone is interested in having a benefit concert, we'd be interested in hosting," says Naomi Smith.

Palisade is also hoping to draw more tourists in search of recreation. The Third Annual Bike Festival, held earlier this spring, broke the previous years' records in attendance and participation. This year's festival combined the Fruit Loop Cycling Tour, which has three different routes of varying distance and degree of difficulty and the Palisade Classic Mountain Bike Race.

Rapid Creek Sports, a sports shop that's starting its second season in downtown Palisade, rents road bikes and European style touring bikes to visitors who want to do cycling tours of the area. They also rent rafts and kayaks to visitors who prefer floating down the Colorado River.

"I saw all the opportunities that Fruita had 10 years ago in Palisade," says Rondo Buecheler, one of the former co-owners of Over the Edge Sports in Fruita and one of the current owners of Rapid Creek Sports. "It's just a really, really cool town."

Although the mountain bike trails in the area are fairly non-existent, Buecheler and his partners Pete Harris and Scott Winans hope to work with the BLM to build trails near Palisade and on Grand Mesa slopes. The beauty of Grand Mesa trails is that they would be bearable in the July heat, unlike some of the desert trails in the valley.

Although the first plan for a whitewater park through Debeque Canyon was shot down, many supporters in Palisade love the idea of a nearby whitewater park and have moved the location of the proposed park three miles downriver, closer to Riverbend Park. Construction of the park could begin as early as next fall.

Even the school makes the most of Palisade's proximity to the Colorado River. All grade levels at Taylor Elementary use the river for science projects. Science is also given a boost by the nearby insectary, which is home to the state's biological pest control program. Frequent field trips are possible due to the high number of parent volunteers.

Mount Garfield Middle School also has unique programs for students in Palisade, using an innovative program to encourage middle school kids to start planning for college and offering an honors program where students remain with the same core teachers throughout their middle school years. Mt. Garfield is also one of the only middle schools in the district that offers foreign language instruction, offering Spanish to students in all three grades.

At the high school level, Palisade High School has recently become one of two Western Slope schools to offer the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, an advanced and internationally recognized curriculum. The high school also has an innovative alternative program for students who may be struggling to get required credits, want to study for their GED or have dropped out, offering online course work and nighttime classes.

All this from a school where Principal Matt Diers concedes, "We've been known to play some football," taking the 3A state championship in 2003. Palisade High School has recently been named the league champ in baseball, and was also the league champ in wrestling, with eight kids advancing to state.

One of the only things Palisade hasn't had going for it has been large parcels of land available for development. Most new construction is smaller neighborhoods of in-fill development, on land that hasn't been agriculturally productive, like Palisade Vineyards, a 19-lot development next to Palisade High School.

On the eastern side of the Colorado River, a 640-acre parcel of land was recently sold to a developer who intends to build a neighborhood of prestigious homes on home sites that could be as large as 10 acres. Infrastructure construction hasn't been started on that project yet, but Elizabeth Birmingham with EB Realty anticipates that the development will include many upscale community amenities.

Sewer service for Palisade doesn't extend east of the Colorado River, although water does. The town of Palisade is getting ready to go back to their own water system, after relying on Ute Water to supply the city with water since September 2004, when the state determined that the old Palisade water treatment plant couldn't meet water clarity standards. After considering all the options, including becoming part of the Ute water system, the town decided to build a new six million dollar treatment plant.

"We have a very pristine source," says Frank Watts, the public works director for the town of Palisade. "Our water quality is high quality because it comes from springs. It's also very reliable."

Life in a small town may not be for everyone, but for those who don't care that there isn't a McDonald's and searching for the perfect home may take longer than expected, life in Palisade is almost as sweet as the peaches.