Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Since being in the Gunnison, Colorado area, we have visited this national park on two different occasions and viewed the canyon from two different sides. This park is the newest park in the national park system; it was established in 1999 by President Clinton. Before dams were established, the river used to slam through the gorge at 12,000 cubic feet per second so it is not hard to believe that at one point, the gorge is 2, 772 feet deep. This is an amazing canyon but I learned that a canyon of this magnitude is very hard to photograph. Here's my best effort from the first day when we traversed the south rim.

We also drove to the bottom; it was a six mile drive down to a dam. Lots of switchbacks which made for very different lighting.

On another day, we drove the north rim and found it had a very different look. Some of the overlooks were downright scary.

All of our drives around this area have involved spectacular views of the aspen trees. We are told that the color in Colorado is better than it has been for many years. In fact, on TV one night the newscaster interviewed a fellow from MN who comes out every year in September to hunt and he said this year had much more vibrant color than he typically encounters.

We did spend a few hours on two different days by a reservoir and Mike even caught a some trout. The night before we went to Taylor Lake Reservoir, it had snowed about 11,000 feet. The snow capped mountains surrounding the lake added to the day.

Tomorrow is moving day. We are heading down to Mesa Verde National Park for three days; I'll let you know what that park is like in a later post.

What Food Comes To Mind When You Think Of Colorado?

PEACHES of course. When we got to the state, we thought the peach season was long gone, but we discovered that the "second season" is in full swing. On our nearly 200 mile drive (more on the drive in another blog) yesterday, we ran across a Fall Harvest Festival taking place in Paonia. The sign along the highway said simply, "U Pick Peaches". So we quickly made the decision to see what that was all about. What we found was a fruit and vegetable farm where you could pick tomatoes (picked about 10), peppers, grapes, (got a couple of pounds)

peaches, apples and blackberries (not ripe yet), or dig onions and potatoes. Oh, and don't forget the pumpkins, gourds, and squash. And all of it was $1 a pound.

We were given a box, and offered, but refused, a wagon to haul our produce back from the fields. And then we were pointed in the right direction. We spent some time just admiring the produce and then made our decisions. When we got to the peach trees, we just started picking and didn't stop until our box was full. Mike did take a minute to sample and declared they were delicious.

We looked so happy carrying our produce that a lady commented on our joy and then offered to take our picture.

We walked away having spent $20 and with great memories; what fun to actually pick peaches~ now we would have to do something with them. We talked about jam and how good that would be but then we decided on sauce.

This morning, after getting hints on fruit canning from mom last night, I went to town (15 miles) for jars and then peeled the whole works.

We assembled all the necessary materials.

And before long, we were boiling the filled jars! We even had to use Granny's Pot, Barry.

From tree to jar, less than 24 hours. Now that is the way to can peaches!

Good eating for a few months.

"What ya wanna do today?"

When those words were spoken in our home yesterday, what followed was a typical response, "Let's take a drive and see what we find."

A lunch was packed, I grabbed a map and we headed left out of the campground around 10 am. Little did we know it would be 10 hours later when we turned back into the park. First we stopped to talk to some fishermen who were basking in the sun in lawn chairs. In the short time Mike talked with them, two trout were caught... now this kind of trout fishing, I could do. Who wouldn't enjoy this setting.

From Gunnison, we headed north to Taylor Park Reservoir and another serene setting for dropping a line. And again, trout were being caught.

So, guess what we are doing tomorrow...

From there we headed to Tin Cup, Colorado. Now that is an interesting town. All the homes are old, restored, privately-owned dwellings. Many of them have outhouses and the town has never seen a lawn mower. Now this is a real mountain village. Already most of the houses were closed up for winter; there was little activity. The church was also the town hall with services on Sunday at 10 and family night on Saturday at 6. We were told that many of the homes do not have electricity or water but there was evidence of each so who knows.

The most interesting part of the town was the cemetery. Three knolls made up this holy ground where people have been buried for a couple of hundred years; a Jewish area, a Catholic area, and a Protestant area - all well marked. I liked the sentiment so formally written on this marker.

There were wooden markers and on one it said the name and then two words BORN DIED with no dates - kinda sums life up doesn't it.

We took a 7 mile jaunt down to Mirror Lake (where I saw no reflections) and alas this isolated spot was well populated by other "wanderers" and the lone fisherman wasn't catching a thing.

And then it was time to take the famous drive to Cumberland Pass. We had left tar roads miles back, and this climb to 12,200 feet was slow and beautiful. This is the highest road in the continental United States. At times, it was one lane.

"Yikes, is that our road?"

While there both of us experienced difficulty breathing as we took a look around. The sign told us that we could see 50 miles on a clear day. All I could think of was the pioneers who took this path with wagons; not an easy task. Sure a lot easier in our Jeep.

On our way down to Pitkin, we stopped to check out an old mine and took turns feeding "camp robbers". A lady called the birds by that name and we haven't been able to find the real name in our bird book - anyone have any ideas? Whatever their name, they loved our apples!

Then we decided to take the old railroad path to the Alpine Tunnel. This tunnel under the Continental Divide took two years to construct and was opened in June of 1882. It was only used by the railroad until 1910 because the rail traffic didn't materialize. The rail line never went any further than just past Gunnison. The 9 mile path is the old railroad bed. All of it is one lane with an occasional place to pull over for an oncoming car.

We did see one car that pulled over in the wrong place and landed in a precarious perch on the side of the mountain. On our way down, we saw the tow truck taking it out. I really wanted to stop and ask how much he was charging, but Mike didn't think that would be appropriate - I bet it was plenty cuz he had to come at least 50 miles one way and mostly on back roads. There was a white knuckle or two on this road. When we got to the end, there was evidence of some of the old buildings that existed 100 years ago and one old fellow who was doing some restoration work. This was a narrow gauge railroad and there are the narrow tracks there and some pictures to show us what it was like "in the day".

Can you imagine what building this railroad and tunnel must have involved. I didn't read anything about the number of lives that were lost, but I bet it was many.

By the time we had finished looking around, it was near 6 pm and definitely time to head back if we hoped to hit "real roads" before sunset. Even if we wanted to get moving, I still walked apart of the trail so I could get a picture of the Jeep on the old railroad bed.

The lighting and the cloudy sky made it fun to take pictures and with the top off, all I had to do was hold the camera up in the air and shoot.

The sky provided a dramatic backdrop for our trip back down to civilization.

When we reached Pitkin, the moon was rising while we put the tops on the car and turned up the heater for our 40 mile trip (on blacktop) back home.

After a beautiful day of site seeing yesterday, we spent this rainy day "hunkered down". Hopefully when the question is asked tomorrow morning, the answer will be "Fishing!"