We traveled 135 miles from Cortez to Montrose, Colorado. A very scenic drive, back into the green world!!!! lots of aspens and grass. Beautiful mountain streams/rivers following along beside the road. Lots of BIG ranches along the way. After we had got settled and had a bite of lunch, the Creans and us went and viewed the Black Canyon. Another masterpiece of this great country! Enjoy the pictures....
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| pulling out |
Delores River...just beautiful, pictures do not do justice...
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| I felt that I was in Ireland |
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sad sight
a dried up lake |
Deep Creek
Ridgway, Colorado
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| checking in |
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| stretching after a long ride!!! |
After settling in we headed out to the Black Canyon
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
The canyon has been a mighty barrier to humans from time to time immemorial. Only the rims, never the gorge, show evidence of human occupation...not even the Ute Indians living in the area since written history began. Ho early Spanish explorers to the southwest reported seeing the canyon. The expedition led by Capt. W. Gunnison, whose name was given to the river, bypassed the gorge in its search for a river crossing. The first written record came from the Hayden Expedition of 1873-74. The Hayden and later , Denver & Rio Grande Railroad survey parties deemed Black Canyon inaccessible.
In 1901, Abraham Lincoln Fellows and William Torrence floated it on a rubber mattress--33 miles in nine days--and said that an irrigation tunnel was feasible. The 5.8 mile Gunnison Tunnel, began in 1905 and dedicated in 1909, still delivers river water for irrigation.
In just 48 miles in Black Canyon the Gunnison River loses more elevation than the 1,500 mile Mississippi River does from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The power of fast falling enables the river to erode tough rock. The river drops an average of 96 feet per mile in the national park It drops 480 feet in one two-mile stretch. Fast, debris-laden water carving hard rock made the canyon walls so steep.
South Rim...Tomichi Point
Gunnison's Point
Chasm View
More later
