Ridgway State Park, Ridgway, CO
We spent most of the morning driving next to the Arkansas River in a gorgeous valley. The Rockies were always in view which just made it ridiculously picturesque. Mid-morning we stopped in the little hipster town of Buena Vista for some coffee. Ironically, we ran into the same group of twenty-somethings from the day before in Leadville. The town this time of year was all about biking, rafting and kayaking.
Further down the road we made a right turn at Salida and drove over the southern Rockies climbing once again to 12,000 feet. Much to our amazement we kept passing cyclists taking on these mountains.
We passed an abandoned mining operation and kept stopping to look out at incredible views.
We spent most of the day at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We've been trying to get here for about 3 years and have always been foiled by inclement weather. Not today, it was in the 90's.
The Gunnison River created this canyon. Most of the canyon is 2000 ft. deep, but reaches close to 3000 ft. in some places. It took a l-o-n-g time to make this canyon, at a rate of 1 inch a century! The Black Canyon got its name because some places at the base only see daylight for 33 minutes a day.
We took the rim trail and were able to walk out to different lookouts along the canyon.
It's hard to get a photo perspective on just how far and straight down it is. You can still hear the river roaring from the rim.
Hard to believe but on the other side of the rim is a former akaline desert. In the early 1900's they blasted thru 6 miles of the solid rock and diverted the Gunnison River thru a tunnel into the desert valley.
In the bottom picture you can see the Rockies, the badlands and the now fertile valley, watered by the Gunnison River. Quite an engineering feat.
We watched a movie at the Visitor's Center about early explorers venturing into the canyon. It was originally declared to be "impenetrable". It would make a great Indiana Jones type movie re-enacting the early explorers trying to navigate thru the canyon. My fave, repelling the walls with nitro-glycerin in their backpacks. Yikes!
We pulled into Ridgway State Park at about 4:00 and 97 degrees. Before we even set up camp we just drove right to the lake and dove in.
Ahoy Debi....is that you floating way out there? You betcha!
Tonight we are camped on a hill overlooking the reservoir. It feels soooo good to be back to hot weather.
Things I've learned this trip. Rethink our roadtrip to Alaska...cruise?? I am definitely a hot weather camper. Of course, Ned likes the cold nights cuz I snuggle closer.
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