Going to Crested Butte & The Black Canyon of the Gunnison

I'm not sure when the idea of visiting every National Park took its first breath, but for the last few years Kathy and I have made regular detours to whittle down the list of those not yet visited..

You'd think Colorado would be easy as it is so centrally located half way between Concord and Mukilteo. And we did see Great Dunes on a trip to southern Texas a few years ago, and Mesa Verde as part of several road trips to the red rock parks of the SW. One park that has managed to elude us has been the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  A precipitous cut into the metamorphic rock underlying central Colorado, so deep that the sun gets all the way to the bottom only a few hours a day.

This year is Kathy's 60th birthday so we decided to celebrate it with another notch on our National Park's belt.

The adventure started with a "pre-trip".

Kathy wanted to treat her two cousins to a trip to Alaska and as it worked out, the 3 of them could split their travels to come to Seattle for a couple days, then on to Alaska for a Backroads multi-adventure trip, and the Kathy coming back to Seattle while the cousins continued on to Chicago to link up with their folks.

One of the highlights of their adventure was the Harding Ice Fields. The three of them hiked 9 miles and 4000 vertical feet!!

One of the reasons we have never been to the Gunnison is that central Colorado is a 3 day drive from Seattle (2 if you are a masochist).

Day 1 - Seattle to Twin Falls Idaho.  We found a real gem in the Shoshone Falls State Park (where we escaped this summer's blistering 100 degree heat with a morning walk before getting back in the car.) And as a bonus we got to see the launch ramp for Evel Knievel's legendary attempt to rocket across the Snake River gorge.   Here's a short video for a bit of history.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5LdesoNFpY

Day 2 we headed for Green River, Idaho, where we visited the John Wesley Powell Museum (anyone who has visited the Grand Canyon or parks of the SW has heard of Powell's adventures as an early explorer and surveyor of the region) and the visit really helped tie all the stories together for me.

It was still over 90 degrees at 5 PM so Kathy got to take a dip in the Green River.

Day 3 we drove on to Montrose via the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, Colorado. Amazing views - and easily worthy of National Park Status.

The next day we visited Black Canyon National Park.  And I can report it is indeed black and it is indeed very deep. I had taken our bikes, and the ride along the rim road (about 20 miles total) was an ideal way to see the canyon. As I look at my one biking picture for the blog, I realize that I am a few desserts over my limit already for this trip.  :-)

We got our final look at the Black Canyon the next day on a Park Service boat ride into the upper canyon (which has been dammed for agricultural use) on our way to Crested Butte.

For more pictures - https://photos.app.goo.gl/zaskJ3N94LzKXGZw6