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Tuesday (7-06) &
Wednesday (7-07) |
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A good first night's sleep west of the Continental Divide was had. We headed towards Crested Butte for some hiking. | ||
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The Maroon Bells Snowmass Area is a Wilderness Area near Crested Butte. It has the reputation of putting on a wonderful wild flower display, and the peak of the wild flowers is soon. There were many flowers out for us to see as we hiked the Copper Creek Trail. | ||
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It was a little over 4 miles and about 2,000 feet of elevation gain to Copper Lake. The last mile was steep. It took us about 3 hours to reach the lake. | ||
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This picture is looking to the south from Copper Lake. It was 65, breezy and sunny for the hike. | ||
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After pizza for dinner at the Firehouse Grille, a restaurant run by the local fire fighters, we headed down Slate Run Road to find a camp site. Like many areas we have been, the land is open for livestock grazing. We find that a few honks of the horn while mooving forward gets them out of the road. | ||
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Wednesday morning we left Crested Butte and the Maroon Bells to head towards the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. We stopped at Hartman's Rocks, south of Gunnison, to check out the climbing. | ||
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After leaving Gunnison we entered the Curecanti National Recreation Area and followed a winding road along the north edge of the reservoir and canyon, pulling off occasionally to enjoy the views. | ||
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This picture shows the roadside scenary, near Crawford, as we drove closer to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. | ||
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Arriving at the National Park we drove to North Rim of the Canyon and set up camp at the North Rim Campground. Then we took a short, one mile hike to an overlook of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This picture is looking to the southeast from the overlook. | ||
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The campground only had 11 sites and was the quietest designated campground we had stayed at so far. Out tent was pitched beneath ancient Pinyon Pine and Juniper trees. We enjoyed a nice sunset from our campsite. | ||