Gunnison, Colorado

Escaping the heat

We cut our time in Ridgway State Park short by a few days because of the heat and headed east.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

We hiked the trail along the south rim with steep drop offs into the deep gorge that are shorter than we usually take. The trails to the river were over my head getting back out. It's a long way down and further up.

Cycling Gunnison's back roads

When we started our bike ride through the farms towards Crested Butte, we had no idea where we would end up or how much we would enjoy it. Fifteen miles into the ride I didn't think Mike was going to want to turn around and suggested that he carry on. I knew the way home and knew he would eventually catch up with me.

He did turn around and catch up with me while I was having a drink in the shade. We thought a return trip might be in order.

 

Crested Butte's Oh Be Joyful Trail

It was the last day of Crested Butte's Wild Flower Festival. In past years the flowers were huge and amazing. This year we were catching the end of the bloom but still very nice. The Oh Be Joyful Trail is a nice trail through a glacial valley which becomes greener and more lush as we climbed. The waterfalls were flowing down the mountainsides. We passed a few hikers returning from their weekend camping trip at Blue Lake seven miles up the trail.

 

Slate River was running too high to walk through. I wasn't thrilled about hiking six miles in wet boots. Besides, we have a 4x4.

We are heading in.

Coming out the other side.

 

Our visit to Gunnison and Crested Butte were a little shorter than we could have wanted but the high altitude was calling.

 

 

Ridgway State Park

Back in Colorado

 

We made our way to Ridgway State Park which is 5 miles from the small town of Ridgway between Ouray and Telluride for a week long stay. We had no internet service once we left Montrose but would visit the nice little library in Ridgway every day or two. Then we would have an excuse to try one of the great restaurants in town. We even found a great Thai coconut and lemongrass soup.

We could see why there had been so many wild fires in Colorado. Everywhere we looked was brown and it was hot. The lake was down 30 feet. Too hot for our planned visit to the hot springs.

Finally, on our fourth day the monsoon rains came and cooled down everything.

Box Canyon Falls 

Of course, we had to see Ouray's Box Canyon Falls. Even though the run off was low, they were still quite impressive with a loud roar in the canyon.

A stop at the Ouray Brewery



An excellent Pilsner and view

 

 

The eclectic people (old hippies, young hippies, cowboys and friends that hangout at Ralph Lauren's ranch) were as entertaining as the musicians at the Thursday evening Ridgway concert in the park. Two couples sat their chairs on each side of us and made the evening even better. They were both so much fun and had great stories.

 

Million Dollar Highway

Hayden Lake

We took the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton one morning and stopped for a hike. The next day the signs were flashing that the highway was closed due to a rock slide. It would be a very long drive to get back for anyone caught south of the slide.

Hiking at an elevation of 11,000-12,000 feet had our legs moving slow on our return from Sivlerton. I thought that we would be faster in the thinner air. Less resistance? Maybe not.

Barrett Mines

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Glad  we brought a lunch.

Ouray's Perimeter Trail

 

After an early morning hike on the 6 mile Perimeter Trail which runs around Ouray, we stopped at Gnar's Taco shop  which turned out to have some great tacos.

They must have been dirty babies leaving the tubs looking like that. 

We got an early start on our hike because it had been pretty hot. As we reached the Perimeter Trail's high point, the sun was rising over the mountains behind us.

A change of plans...



Dinosaurs

Things are heating up! 

The temperatures were heating up and wild fires burning in the west as we arrived in Vernal, Utah. Since we were driving by Dinosaur National Monument, we thought we should stop and check it out.  

Dinosaur National Monument

Dinosaur National Monument includes one of Earth's richest known dinosaur fossil beds. These remains from the Jurassic period150 million years ago. During a drought, many dinosaurs died near a river's edge. When the rain returned, floodwaters carried the jumbled bones of over 500 dinosaurs, representing ten species, here. Ancient river sediments, now called Morrison sandstone,

entombed the dinosaur bones and cast them in stone. After faults pushed up the earth, erosion eventually exposed the fossils.

We took the short ride on the shuttle to the Quarry from the visitor's center. The bones looked unreal with a couple for us to touch.

The campground host told us that most people just visit the quarry and leave. She suggested that we take the drive to the end of the road. We picked up and auto guide as we entered the Monument and made several interesting stops.

 

There were hikes to petroglyphs.

 

Elephant Toes Butte from eroded Nugget Sandstone.

Fremont people carved petroglyphs into the cliffs. The six foot long lizard is considered to be 1000 years old.

Then there was Josephine Morris's cabin.

Josephine Morris is a legend that lived her life on her own terms. She chose to too settle here in 1914 and built several cabins on her homestead after marrying five times and finally chose the single life. She was accused of cattle rustling twice (never convicted) and an alleged associate of Butch Cassidy. In 1964, while feeding her horse, it nudged her and she slipped on some ice. She suffered a broken

hip. Alone, she dragged herself into her house where a friend found her several days later. She had no phone to call for help. On her trip to the hospital she knew she would never again see the home she built. She died that spring at 89 years old.

We hiked into the two box canyons Josie used for corrals and could imagine her life. There were  small and medium sized bobcat prints in the sand. The canyon was protected from the sun making a much cooler walk.

Turtle rock is the same type of sandstone which forms the arches in Arches National Park.

The Green River runs through the valley beneath the sandstone cliff with two very nice primitive campgrounds long the banks of the river.

 

One evening while we were walking, a bug stung me in the eye. Boy, did it sting, giving me blurry vision in that eye for a few days. No driving for Debbie for those days. Darn....

Colorado National Monument

Back in Colorado again.

The drive to Tom Robb State Park in Fruita, Colorado was short and near the entrance to the Colorado Monument. That gave us time to take a peaceful evening walk in the Monument. We hadn't seen it from this perspective before.

Now, we head to Ridgway State Park.