We left Grand Junction this morning at 8:45 and 72 degrees and headed south to Montrose, CO. From there we took the road into Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It was about a two hour drive and took us through many small and towns along the way. Some were quite run down and the properties around the homes that we saw were cluttered and unattended to. And I joked that they were in need of an HOA. (My friends in Florida will understand this.) We passed areas where it appeared that nothing was going on even though Halliburton was present, areas where the earth was arid desert, and areas where fertile fields were growing corn and onions and other crops.

We arrived in Montrose and took the turn east to the park.   I was not expecting much. Lets face it…after taking photos of red and peach colored sculptures, orange walls and purple and tan canyons, the thought of viewing black rock made me think there were not going to be any photo ops here.   And it is true. The canyon was named Black Canyon because the rock color is very dark. And it is very narrow and very deep, so the sun doesn't shine much on the walls of this canyon. Much of it is always in the shadows. I did my best to take photos, but you will see, they are dark. We learned that this park was only added to the National Park Register in 1999. It’s a newbie and not well known.

The park road took us up to 9,000 ft. and we were looking down at the bottom of the canyon where the Gunnison River flows. It is a loooong way down. Many of the viewing areas require a good deal of walking (I will say hiking). We did some of them and not others. One was labeled to be 100 yards and by park standards, that is supposed to mean round trip. We decided to take that one, and we walked, and we walked and we walked, about three tenths of a mile out and the same distance back. Someone was joking when they printed that sign. It was 80 degrees and in the sun it felt like 90. But I did it. Two other stops required walking down a significant number of stairs and back up. I did that, too. I wanted to see what everyone else was looking at. And it was the river, down below, about 4,000 ft. below. Maybe more.

After viewing all of the south rim areas, we decided to take the road down to the floor of the canyon. This was another white-knuckle drive, on a road barely wide enough for 2 cars, with no guard rails and sharp drop-offs from the pavement. And the hairpin curves, oh they were fun. The reward was worth it. We were down where the river flows and where there is a short waterfall and some rapids. My best photos were taken there.   Beamer enjoyed the peace and quiet of this place…no crying babies, no screaming kids, just the sound of the river running past us. (All of my videos today had the sounds of unhappy kids on them so I only downloaded one, without the kids screaming. If only that guy had not walked right into my shot, it would have been fine.)

After relaxing in the park, we climbed back to the top of the canyon and headed for our hotel. Tomorrow, Aspen.