Aided by drought, outdoor metal art is becoming increasingly popular in the Grand Valley

Tim Harty, The Business Times

Upland Gravel started selling outdoor metal art – various plants in vibrant colors; living creatures either colorful or rust-covered – after moving to 454 28 1/2 Road, right off the Interstate 70 Business Loop, in April 2023.

Since then, orders for more metal art tended to be a quarterly occurrence. So, when Upland Gravel’s husband-and-wife owners, Nathan and Kris Rinderle, ordered a truckload of metal art in the first week of December 2025, they figured they’d be good through March. Instead, they were almost sold out when March arrived, and they had to replenish during the first week of that month.

Two weeks into April, it was time for another order. Then came May and the need for another order.

So much for the truckload every three months.

Metal art is in demand in the Grand Valley, where spring and a stretch of 80-degree temperatures arrived dismayingly early this year and got home owners thinking about their yards. The dry start to 2026 and anticipated consequences of extreme drought also got them thinking a colorful, permanent, metal flower won’t wilt and die because of a water restrictions.

One new problem looms, however. The Grand Valley isn’t the only place craving the metal creations. Kris Rinderle said when Upland Gravel tried to put in its May order, she was told she needed to wait until June, because demand is outpacing production.

Regardless, Upland Gravel has reveled in the revenue increases logged in its ledger in 2026. Sales in January were up about 20 percent year-over-year. February was up about 40 percent. Then came March and a 52 percent increase in sales.

“It was our busiest month we ever had,” Kris Rinderle said, and what followed was more impressive. April revenues rose 107 percent over the previous April. With four days left in May, it already was up 111 percent over May 2025.

While the rising numbers are for all items sold at Upland Gravel, Nathan Rinderle said metal art is “a big part of it, for sure.”

He added, “We have had a lot of people come in and say that they’re removing grass and that they’re going to xeriscape-type landscape for their houses. We’ve been hearing that quite a bit, and a lot of people have been coming in and saying, ‘We’re not planting stuff. We’re gonna do metal-art-type plants, a metal flower or something, instead of actually planting plants this year.’ So, we have been seeing an uptick in our sales of people coming in and doing that.”

Other sellers of metal art are singing a similar song.

A little ways down the Interstate 70 Business Loop from Upland Gravel at 929 Pitkin Ave. is Desert Metal Art, where used-car dealer Desert Auto used to reside. If your inner detective just raised an eyebrow, he or she is right: Owners John and Jennifer Gallegos changed the name of their business and the product it sells.

“We’ve only been in the business three years,” John Gallegos said of the metal art, “and we were in the automotive business for 20 years. So, this was a little side gig that we were doing, but it’s got to a point where I can definitely say it’s replaced the car business for us.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve got the same gross profit off of it that we did in car sales, but it’s more accessible these days than used cars. The used-car market probably got better in the last couple years, but we switched over because, well, we’re getting close to retirement, too. This is something we can do even into retirement years.”

Similar to Upland Gravel, Desert Metal Art is seeing more sales of metal art and hearing similar reasons for the change.

“A lot of people are saying that they’re not gonna try and grow anything this year,” John Gallegos said. “They’re gonna use metal flowers, metal cactus, metal art, to kind of put in place of a live plant. A lot of people say, ‘Well, we got to do our part, because in the end, our farmers and our ranchers are the ones that really need our water.’

“Yeah, it’s definitely people who are doing their part to try and conserve water. And yes, a lot of people are going to the xeriscape. And this definitely, definitely helps.”

John Gallegos noted a couple other stores that sold metal art went out of business in the past year. He can only speculate on their reasons, but he believes the remaining metal-art retailers are likely picking up some business from them.

While Jennifer Gallegos was being interviewed by The Business Times in mid-April, John Gallegos returned after helping a customer and said he just experienced what he had been speaking about earlier in the interview.

“Exactly what we were talking about,” John said of the customer’s reason for stopping at Desert Metal Art. “He said, ‘We’re gonna go with more metal art this year.’ He goes, ‘I think we’re gonna have water restrictions.’”

John Gallegos said Desert Metal Art’s location is another driver of visitors to the business. The tall, rusty, Bigfoot statue or equally rusty and hungry-looking velociraptor guarding the entrance to the parking lot draws eyes and inquiring minds.

“A lot of people like to just come and look at our stuff,” he said. “You know, we’re like, ‘Don’t come alone. It’s like a museum. Yeah, bring the kids, bring the family, look.’ And every once in a while, you’ll sell something cool.”

The owners of Desert Metal Art and Upland Gravel spoke of their locations being great for generating traffic at their stores. Likewise, it’s easy to notice Longhorn Trading Post at 2898 U.S. Highway 50, nestled nicely in the northwest corner where the highway and 29 Road intersect.

Longhorn Trading Post’s colorful metal art and a few statues made from other materials are lures that hook drivers who didn’t originally intend a visit to the store, which moved there in October 2024.

Longhorn Trading Post owner Lynn Sutherland owned and operated Colorado Graphx LLC in a store at Mesa Mall and also sold metal yard art from a kiosk inside the mall.

A year-and-a-half at the new location doesn’t provide Sutherland with two complete years to compare, but she did say sales in 2025 were up about 100 percent from 2024 (when three-fourths of the year was at Mesa Mall).

Sutherland believes the highly visible and accessible new location makes a difference in the metal-art sales. It may take another year or two to determine which factors make the biggest difference.

“We don’t know if it’s drought and people wanting to xeriscape, how much that might factor in,” she said. “That could be a huge factor.”

People want rusty, $3,000 Bigfoot statues

The transformation of Desert Auto into Desert Metal Art began several years ago with a conversation between Desert Metal Art owners John and Jennifer Gallegos and a supplier who had a metal dinosaur on a trailer.

As John Gallegos recalls, Jennifer said, “We have to take a dinosaur back.” And he questioned the wisdom, wondering who would pay $600 for a metal dinosaur, and he didn’t like the idea of shelling out $600 and not knowing whether it would ever sell.

Ultimately, John said, “We brought it back and stuck it out there. We sold it in about three or four days. So, I’m like, ‘OK, let’s bring home some dinosaurs.’”

Then, John and Jennifer encountered a Bigfoot metal statue on the vendor’s trailer, thought it was cool and asked who was buying it. The answer was no one; the vendor brought it along in case somebody wanted it. Then, the answer became: Desert Metal Art is buying it. But again they needed to be convinced first.

John said he asked how much the Bigfoot statue cost, was told it would be about $3,000, then thought, “That’s too much money.” The vendor told him to place Bigfoot in front of his store and don’t bother with a sign, because the statue will sell itself.

“I said, ‘OK, we’ll try it,’” John said. “We brought it home. I kid you not, in less than a week we sold it. So, I call them up, and I said, ‘Can you guys bring more Bigfoots?’ They’re like, ‘How many you want?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, maybe two.’ So, we brought back two … We have sold 10. One customer bought three for his yard.

“So, yeah, it’s been fun. It has been fun.”

And for what sells the most, John pointed to some colorful metal flowers and cactuses and said, “This is probably our bread and butter right here.”

Business is rockin’ at Upland Gravel

When your business is named Upland Gravel, the primary product for sale is obvious. But Upland Gravel co-owner Nathan Rinderle said revenue is up across the board for the items it carries. Beyond decorative rock, the metal art is selling like never before, and people are buying the pottery.

It’s reflected in the numbers, as revenue in 2024 was up slightly from 2023, Upland Gravel’s first year at 454 28 1/2 Road. Rinderle said 2025 was better than 2024, “but it wasn’t drastic by any means.”

For 2026, however, he said, “This year has been exponentially higher. We’d been growing a little bit, but not like it has been this year.”

Rinderle said everything on the landscaping side of the business has seen increased sales, which led him to mention this about pottery and metal art: “People are putting pots in (their yards) and even using metal art in the pots instead of planting stuff in them.”