Today, we were going to get up early and drive 17 miles to the Black Canyons of the Gunnison National Park. Have you ever heard of it? We hadn't until we started planning this trip. Before driving out to the park, we felt we needed a good home style breakfast. We stopped at the Shanty II, a family owned little coffee shop. You just can't go wrong with an All American Breakfast. Walt said his Chicken Fried Steak was pretty darn good.

With full tummies, we felt we The wind had really picked up and it was cooold. It is a tradition to stop at the National Park sign and take our picture. Today, Barb and I were reluctant, because it was coooold, but we mustered up the courage. There were a couple of vehicles parked by the sign that we thought we could ask someone to take our picture, but we didn't see anyone in the vehicles. One looked just like Walt's truck. We took turns taking each other's picture and we were all heading back to the truck. Barb was dashing....right into the wrong truck. She almost got into the backseat until she recognized that this was not the Beast. She surprised the guy that was hunkered down in the driver's seat asleep. She said he was pretty cute.... We had a good laugh. FUBAR for Barb.

This park was, as Barb puts it..."A Big WOW". At the bottom of the Canyon runs the Gunnison River, named after the Capt. John W. Gunnison. The "Black" is attributed to the depth of the canyon. It is so deep and narrow in some places no light reaches the bottom. It is amazing to think that water, erosion, and wind were responsible for this canyon and the landscape we will be passing through in the next few days. Gunnison River flowed with a vengeance over the millions of years creating the deep canyon. The deepest point is 2,772 feet deep. The erosion over millions of years exposed pinkish veins running through the rock. If you look closely you will dragons trying to claw their way to the surface. Absolutely breathtaking.

After we stopped for a few provisions at Safeway, we made a beeline for the KOA, since we should have vacated our sites by 11am. It was now 1pm. The folks at the KOA were really nice and allowed us to tarry a bit. We all grabbed a bite to eat from our coffers and we were ready to get on the road. However, Walt was a little detained. He made a wrong turn in the park and Barb had to move a table so they could get out. FUBAR for Walt.

The remainder of the drive to Moab was uneventful until we got to Moab. Siri really does have a sense of humor, but we got her figured out. We put the Moab KOA as the destination and when we got to Moab she had us taking these back roads through residential areas. The clincher was the left turn on a street that said, "Dead End". Walt sent us up the road to check it out. Sure enough, Walt and Barb would have had a doozie of a time backing back down the road. We found the actual address and made it without further issue to the KOA.

We arrived around 4:45pm. The weather was warm and calm. Though, there was this grey ominous looking cloud hanging to the west of us. One moment we were sitting outside playing cards when all of sudden the winds picked up and the temperature dropped. It looked like we will be cramming into our rig again for dinner. With knees touching, we, again, enjoyed a very cozy slow cooker stew with garlic bread and salad.

Tomorrow, we explore the Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park.