The Gifford farmhouse, built in 1908, now holds a store and small museum run by the park's natural history association. It stands in the orchards with picnic tables and a water refill station nearby. Parking is limited, and the shop closes for part of the year.
The Gifford House comes up on your right in about three hundred yards. Parking's tight, with a thirty-minute limit in season, and the big dirt lot across the road takes the rest. Calvin Pendleton built it in nineteen oh eight, and the Giffords held it forty-one years and added a small motel. For me, Fruita was paradise, Dewey Gifford said. The store closes for the season, so check. Any pie is luck. The fee station's half a mile on, past the campground turns, on your right. Stay on the pavement.
Photo: NPS / Nathan Gross · Public domain (U.S. Government work)