Colorado
On our way from Canon to Gunnison, Colorado, we had to cross Monarch Pass. It is 11,312 feet in elevation. The road is in good condition, and the views are unforgettable.
US Highway 50 is very scenic from Gunnison to our Thousand Trails campground. For several miles the road follows along beside the Gunnison River and Reservoir. We would cross this bridge later in the week on our way to Lake City. But that’s another story.
We could see the lake from our campsite. It was just across the highway from the campground. The weather changed every day. Sometimes it was very calm, and other times it was very windy.
In the afternoons, we would often get thunderstorms with magnificent looking clouds, especially at sunset.
During our three-week stay there, we took several day trips. One of our trips was to a new national park (for us), Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I’d never heard of it before until I was looking on the map to see what was near us. It was still about an hour drive from us, but totally worth it.
Right near the park entrance is the Visitors’ Center. It is perched on a hill overlooking the canyon. There’s a trail that leads to a lookout point. We walked down, but had to stop a couple of times coming back up. It is at an elevation of 5,600 feet and we weren’t used to it yet.
At our first lookout below the Visitors’ Center, we got our first real sense of the depth of this canyon. From 1,820 feet to 2,722 feet it makes it a real challenge for anyone afraid of heights as we were soon to find out.
At the bottom of the canyon was the Gunnison River hundreds of feet below.
The road follows the edge of the canyon. We reached one point where the road nears the edge. There in the middle of the road was an RV stopped, straddling both lanes. A man was walking around in the road looking agitated.
I was driving, so I rolled down my window and asked him what was wrong. He (Brian) came over to tell me he had a panic attack and was unable to drive so close to the edge around the curve. When I offered to have someone (Ray) drive for him, he was visibly relieved. Ray took over for him and drove the rest of the way. We had our ham radios to communicate between the vehicles, so when I wanted to stop to take photos, Ray could pull over.
It surprised me that Brian got out and looked at the canyon at the overlooks. Apparently, he was okay with heights as long as he wasn’t driving.
At Chasm Viewpoint, one can look straight down for hundreds of feet from the viewing point. The canyon is only 1,100 feet wide at the rim, and as little as 40 feet wide at the narrows.
“Painted Rocks” looks like someone splashed paint across the canyon walls. The colors are from minerals from volcanic activity and erosion that exposed them.
At Warner Overlook the distant valley is visible. The Canyon is 48 miles long, but only 14 miles is contained in the Black Canyon National Park boundaries.
The contrast between the rocky cliffs and the lush farmland below shows the beautiful variety in God’s creation.
Ray drove the RV back to the entrance of the park where he handed it over to Brian again. Brain thanked us profusely and tried to pay Ray for his time, but Ray refused. He came over to shake my hand and thanked me also. His palm was still sweaty, so I knew his panic had been real. Later, we discovered a wad of money that he’d stuck in Ray’s back pocket. We were just glad to help a fellow traveler out of a pinch.
After dropping Brian off, we drove the road down to the bottom of the canyon. The descent is quite steep in parts, but a beautiful drive. We brought a picnic lunch. By then it was nearly 2:00 p.m. and we were pretty hungry. We found a covered picnic area right by the river and enjoyed the view while we ate.
We’d had an interesting day. It wasn’t what we had planned, but sometimes God puts people in our way that need His love demonstrated to them.
We were glad to finally get back home to our little home on wheels.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10