This post is being written on June 26, but we don’t have internet or cell service here so I’ll post it whenever we get to a place where we can connect.
We knew this day was going to be good when we got the wonderful news of the Supreme Court’s two marriage equality decisions shortly after 8:00 our time! Still much struggle for full equality left to face, but this is such a great step forward.
We then left Ridgway State Park and headed toward Montrose, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We had never heard of this national park until friends Sue Ann and Jim told us about it, and boy are we ever glad we found this place! It’s so beautiful, so different from so many of the other parks we’ve been, even the canyon parks. No red rocks here, but the rock walls of this narrow canyon are dark gray, and in some places, particularly when the sun creates certain lighting and shadow patterns, they do in fact appear to be black. We had heard back in Ouray that there were fires here and that the park or the access roads might be closed. We were happy to find out, though, that the park was still open. We were also glad we came on to the park, so we could get a campsite in the park, since we had not made reservations. Some loops of the campground are reservable, but we were able to find a nice site that’s reserved, but for folks coming in a few days from now. They allow you to take a site for two nights without a reservation, so long as you don’t overlap with the reservations that are marked on the site posts, all on a first come first served basis. So we knew it would be better to come on to the park and find a site before we did anything else.
By the time we got the site taken care of we had lunch and then headed for the visitor center. You actually start the South Rim Drive when you leave the campground and before you arrive at the visitor center, and there was one viewpoint first, so we pulled off there and got our first glimpse of the sheer dropoffs from the rim down to the Gunnison River bed, and it is spectacular! I don’t think I will ever get over being fascinated by how powerful water is and what it has done over millions of years--here to cut this remarkable, narrow slot through the towering sides of black rock--just amazing. We’ve seen the vastness of the Grand Canyon and all the beautiful red rocks in Utah’s parks, but this canyon is special in its own, different way. The visitor center is very nice here, and the orientation film is very well done, telling the history of how General Palmer had wanted to run his narrow gauge railroad through here, but how he ultimately concluded it was not feasible, resulting in its more southerly location, since everyone had said the Gunnison River was impenetrable. Then we learned about how two men later came along and, after unsuccessfully trying to navigate the Gunnison in two wooden boats, ultimately succeeded by using an inflatable rubber mattress! They surveyed the river, leading to the successful construction of a diversion tunnel for water to be used for irrigation of farmlands. Then the movie told a great story about a Presbyterian minister named Mark Warner who came here in the 1920’s, fell in love with the place and devoted his energy to getting this placed designated as national monument, and it ultimately became a national park. Of course, Trisha was quite excited to know it was a Presbyterian minister who did this!
As we were walking out to the overlook at the visitor center, we saw a number of folks with firefighter tshirts on, but from Montana. We asked this one woman about where they were working and she explained how they were being “prepositioned,” meaning that they were called to come be prepared for where the experts are expecting more fires to break out. She said they weren’t needed in Montana right now, since there was still snow where they were from, thus not too high a fire risk. So they had a little time to visit the park, but they all had their radios on, ready to be called to duty at a moment’s notice. This drought in this part of the country is so bad, and they’ve already had to evacuate a number of areas in Colorado, and at one point we saw where there were more than 2000 firefighters battling fires in New Mexico. July is when rain typically comes, and July can’t come quickly enough for this area. Anyway, we thanked them all for what they do. Hope they all can be safe, and we can’t ever thank folks like them and other public servants who do what they do so the rest of us can be safe.
Then, as we were walking back to the RV, we met these two women who started going on about Santa and Mrs. Claus being here, and they wanted to have pictures, which of course we were happy to do. When we heard them as, “So where are y’all from?” we knew these were kindred southern spirits! So get this--when we said north Georgia, this one woman nearly dropped her teeth, telling us she is from Dahlonega! As we talked more and they asked where I did Santa, Trisha began explaining about how we go into Head Start and PreK programs for kids who can’t afford to go the mall for Santa pictures, she eventually mentioned that she had just retired from The Craddock Center. Well this woman did another open mouthed face, and said she has known Dr. Craddock for years, and talked about how she’s always loved reading the Center’s newsletter, and when she made the connection that Trisha has been the one writing articles for the last 6 years, she couldn’t believe it! Small, small world!
So we continued the 6 mile South Rim Drive, stopping at the overlooks, and just marveling at the incredible scenery. In lots of these places, you could look almost straight down past your feet and see the river down below, and sometimes the sound of the roar of the rapids was quite loud, even up as high above the river as we were, so we could only imagine how loud it must be right down on the river itself! At several of the viewpoints, you walk a ways to get to the actual overlook--not too far, but at this elevation and with the high heat, it doesn’t take long in midafternoon to take it out of you. So after we finished the drive, we just tooled on back to the campsite to settle in for the night. It’s taken until just about 8:00PM for it to cool down enough to open the windows, it’s quite nice outside now. Tomorrow we were fortunate enough to get reservations for a boat tour in the Curecanti National Recreation Area, which is about an hour’s drive from here, due to some construction slow downs en route, but we got the last two seats on the boat on either of their tours, so we were happy that worked out. We’re really looking forward to that trip!
Some shots along the way from Ridgway to Black Canyon
These rugged mountains in the background, still with a little snow on them, are really dramatic
This little church was in a sort of museum area, with several other buildings, apparently moved here from other locations, on the way to the park. Trisha was speculating, perhaps hoping, that it may have been the church of Rev. Mark Warner, the Presbyterian minister who devoted so much time to getting the park recognized.
Some of the first views down into the canyon from one of the overlooks; like so many times before, I have to say that these photos really don't give you a real sense of the perspective here--in some places, the top of the canyon walls where we were standing are 2500 ft above the floor, where the river is.
Even the overlook restroom building is a log cabin!
Quote from Mark Warner on the display walls in the visitor center
Can you believe I got this yellow bellied marmot to stand up for my picture? Neither can I--it's a stuffed one in a display case in the visitor center! We did see one in the flesh back in Capitol Reef National Park, but he was lying down on a rock above the path.
Stuffed great horned owl in another display case--not quite as big as the real one we saw in Big Bend National Park in Texas
One of the giant dandelion puff balls we've seen so many of in the last few days
Some shots along the way from Ridgway to Black Canyon
One of the giant dandelion puff balls we've seen so many of in the last few days
We went there the first time over thirty years ago. It is one of our favorite places:)
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