The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was on the way
from Telluride to Fruita, where we had reservations for our last
night in Colorado. It's a very unassuming park, which you really
don't know is there until you run across it. The main road into
the park leads up what seems like an inconspicuous hill, until
all of the sudden theres this huge canyon in front of you. There
are no trails that lead down to the Gunnison River (although
the park road does work its way beyond the canyon to reach the
river.). The canyon is deep, narrow and dark (hence the name).
Becki and Randy peer into the canyon.
This feature is called the Painted Wall. The white striations are made by intrusions of quartz.
An informative park sign.
Randy attempts to fix the plastic air dam that became dislodged on the Last Dollar
Road. We thought we heard him muttering something about needing duct tape.
Sad Ranger Joe and Happy Ranger Joe
From here we headed for Fruita, Colorado, where we had reservations at a
fine Super 8 (which was located right next to the Huey helicopter seen on the
first page of this series.) The following day, Linda, Bucky and I hit I-70 east
for Kansas, while Becki and Randy headed north towards Dinosaur National
Monument and eventually Yellowstone National Park. We made it to Indepen-
dence, Missouri, that night, surviving a heavy rainstorm in Kansas that washed
off all the fine Utah dirt that we had accumulated (with great effort) on our travels
through the boondocks. From Missouri we headed back towards Ohio, stopping
in Columbus to have dinner with Linda's brother Rob, then north back to Burton.
Thus endeth the Joint Expedition West 2007
Stay tuned for the Great Western Expedition of 2009 (assuming we can afford the gas then.)
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