We have arrived in Breckenridge, Colorado. It is good to be connected to the outside world again, to find out what's been going on.
After lunch in Albuquerque with some friends, we drove north to the Carson National Forest. We found a nice camping spot at the Columbine Campground. The cool weather was wonderful. As you see, I was wearing a jacket as I cook breakfast.
We spent the fist half of our day here hiking to Middle Fork Lake. The trail isn't long, but begins at 9,600 feet and arrives at the lake at 10,845 feet.
We enjoyed lunch beside the lake in the company of an inquisitive chipmunk. When we went to bed in the evening, we were treated to a symphony of owl calls. We were glad to be off quickly after breakfast; we were pestered by dozens of bees who seemed fond of whatever we happened to be eating. Our pancake breakfast was especially enticing. The bees were persistent but didn't sting, thank goodness.
Neither one of us had ever visited the Great Sand Dunes National Park so we went to check it out.
We enjoyed he park video and walked just far enough on the edge of the dunes to know that walking in the sand was no fun. Lots of people rent sand boards and ride down the slopes of the dunes after having climbed to the crests. We had a picnic lunch in the shade of an ancient cedar tree before driving on to the Rio Grande National Forest.
W camped in the Big Meadows Campground at the Big Meadows Reservoir under ominous skies.
We were lucky to have a fast-to-prepare supper of potato soup with ham because the rain started as soon as we got the tent set up. One nice thing about car camping is the possibility to enjoy the warm dry car while all about you is getting wet. We made a hasty get-away the next morning as the rain started again after an hour or so of partial blue sky.
From Big Meadows, we headed to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, another new place to both of us. As we drove the scenic highway along the Blue Mesa Reservoir and the Curecanti National Recreation Area, we saw the effects of the drought in the Southwest. The water level is many feet below full level (my guess is 30 feet). In addition to the dam at Morrow Point, there is Crystal Dam further down the river. These 2 provide recreation as well as irrigation for the farmers in the Gunnison Basin.
A third dam is the Gunnison Diversion Dam which assures that water can be diverted into the Gunnison Tunnel. This 6 mile tunnel was constructed between 1905 and 1909 and diverts water during the growing season for irrigation. The road descending to the canyon floor has a 16% grade and was originally constructed as a supply route for the tunnel construction!
At the end of the East Portal Road is a beautiful, verdant campground where we spent the night. We got rained on again - good for Colorado, not-so-good for camping.
After an early morning shower, the sky cleared. We spent the morning exploring the Black Canyon. Two million years ago, the Gunnison Uplift raised the canyon's rock from deep in the Earth. The area around the uplift was filled in by volcanic ash and other soft rock. When water flowed through the area, the erosion of the softer material trapped the Gunnison River in what became the canyon. The canyon erodes very slowly because of the hard rock of the uplift, gneiss, granite and schist. Spaces in the gneiss were filled in with pegmatite giving the canyon walls a striped appearance. The hardness of the rock means that erosion is very slow, one hair's breadth a year.
The park has numerous overlooks with stunning views of the canyon and river.
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison was first established as a National Monument by President Hoover in 1933. It was designated a national park in 1999. One of the earliest and most persistent advocates for setting aside this spectacular area was a Presbyterian minister for whom Warner Point is named. We hiked to this point on the trail at the end of the park's paved road.
