Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park


Yesterday, September 11, 2017 we traveled to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  It was a very scenic trip and it was not very far from the town where we are staying.  About twenty miles.  The Black Canyon was discovered by the Native Americans living in the area but of course the US took credit for the discovery when John Powell came through the area and mapped it out. The canyon has a river running through it and the city of Montrose made a tunnel through the mountain and the rocks to get water for the crops they wanted to grow.  Oh by the way that was in the 1920's.  The canyon was explored by engineers who stated that it could not be done but some General whose name I forgot said it would be done and hired several engineers to make it happen.  The canyon walls are 2400 feet in some areas and range from 2400 feet to 1700 feet in different parts of the canyon.  There is a road that you can drive down to the bottom of the canyon.  The grade is 16% going down so you have to make sure you had a good low gear and good breaks.  We drove down and had a picnic lunch at the bottom.  They had some very nice picnic tables with shade there and we had a good lunch by the water.  I am going to miss all this when we get home. 

The canyon has several places that you can pull off and walk to the edge of the canyon.  There is no protection in some areas and rails in other places so you do not fall.  We hiked to some of the places and while I hiked at different pull offs Bobby and Cindy guarded the truck.  It was a great day.
(Cindy here. We only guarded the truck once. We had hiked a good bit and just wanted to catch our breath. Mr. Ash is one hard person to keep up with.)















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