2016 Western Trip – Day 24-26 - Black Canyon & Montrose

On Friday, we decided to take it pretty easy so we just made the 20 mile drive over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (this is 18 of 60 National Parks we have visited  - all four in Colorado - so we have a few to go).  The canyon's name owes itself to the fact that parts of the gorge only receive 33 minutes of sunlight a day and the park encompasses 12 miles of the 48 mile long Gunnison River Gorge.  A quote from a book on the canyon - "Several canyons of the American West are longer and some are deeper, but none combines the depth, sheerness, narrowness, darkness, and dread of the Black Canyon."

From the 5800’ elevation of the Montrose, we had to climb up about 2500’ to the canyon rim – our car got a little hot on the ascent and the air temp dropped about 10F.  Per Wikipedia, the Gunnison River drops an average of 34 feet per mile through the entire canyon, making it the 5th steepest mountain descent in North America and by comparison, the Colorado River drops an average of 7.5 feet per mile through the Grand Canyon.

We just drove as far as the visitor’s center and walked down to the overlook for these shots .  My shots don't do the canyon justice.

The weekend, Bev and Pat went into Montrose a couple of times for the farmers market, shopping, and some errands while I dog-sat and made a few minor repairs to Sweetie – more like just living life than being tourists on vacation. 

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/12 – 8/14/16 event dates