El Jet’s Cantina + Sky Outpost Eco Resort Launches In 2023
In 2003, five friends and their three kids took a free-spirited, sun-soaked road trip through Baja for 14 days on the hunt for the best fish tacos and salty margs. They hit every roadside taco stand they saw, but at the end of their two weeks, the quest wasn’t quite achieved. That’s when entrepreneur Jen Taylor had an intensely vivid vision of El Jet’s Cantina + Sky Outpost.
Rendering by Shape Architects and courtesy of El Jet’s Cantina + Sky Outpost
Named for her sons Skylar and Jet, the revelation has since exploded into a mission-fueled, woman-led outdoor rec hospitality destination promising hip camping and a cantina featuring a margarita bar and those coveted fish tacos. Taylor wrote the business plan on the way home from Mexico and, over the years, the project has evolved as an entertaining side gig. The eco resort will activate Grand Junction’s Riverfront at Dos Rios development with a targeted ground breaking of August 2022 and grand opening in 2023. The larger city project encompasses 58 acres of mixed-use development in the heart of Grand Junction, rolling out 15.8 acres of parks and open space, 9.5 acres for light industrial/commercial and 10.2 acres for mixed-use development all within steps of the Colorado River and popular mountain biking and hiking trails.
Taylor bills her mindful, outdoor-centric basecamp as a destination with purpose, holding space for fellow outdoor enthusiasts to decompress after a day in the desert, on the river or on the trail.
“When you’re out doing what you love, there’s soulshine in the eyes,” she says. “I want this to be the place where you sit around the fire and reconnect and recalibrate with your tribe. It’s an exchange.”
Sky Outpost is set to feature 18 RV sites with full hookups, 22 primitive river tent campsites, 17 architect-designed surf shack casitas and 10 restored, vintage glamping pods that include Airstreams with cut-out French doors opening up to the river. A 1964 Ford flatbed truck will host live music and spots for three locally sourced food trucks will round out the dining offerings. Taylor and team are distilling their own private-label tequila in Tequila, Mexico to serve at El Jet’s alongside signature fish tacos and ceviche. There will also be fire pits, a volleyball pit, a climbing area for kids and yard games.
Dedication to community service and stewardship is at the project’s forefront, employing and empowering Latino youth through a servant leadership model and funneling a portion of lodging profits to nonprofits like Forever Our Rivers. “The social capital and passion invested by locals and outdoorists who have heard the story of El Jet's Cantina + Sky Outpost has harnessed energy that will carry us from groundbreaking to margarita celebrating on the river,” Taylor says. “This is a bridge to create and celebrate culture, community and confluence.”
Originally published in the Summer 2022 of Spoke+Blossom.