We spent a couple of days gathering information, going to the visitor's center at Curecanti National Recreation Area and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park to get information and - small world - ran into our neighbors from Arizona, Grace and Don, who also were visiting the park. It is truly a small world!
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| You can see by the marks on the side of the reservoir how low the water is |
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| Stark, this is the Pinnacle area |
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| The marina we stopped to ask about the water level |
Did a quick little hike right behind the visitor's center of the Black Canyon, took some photos and decided that we needed to spend more time at the park another day so we drove on to Montrose to do major shopping. Gunnison is bigger in population that Buena Vista, has a tidge more stores, but not any other the major chain ones.
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Curecanti is quite a large area, to the left (west) is the Black
Canyon on the Gunnison National Park |
Curecanti reminds me a lot of the Dead Sea in Israel. No vegetation, stark cliffs, low water - fresh (Dead Sea being salt), and not very pretty. A haven for boaters, fishing, swimming, paddle boarding, kayaking, canoeing. Not too many hiking trails, but the recreation area goes for many miles. The Gunnison River was dammed up (3 dams) and created 3 different reservoirs. When we stopped at the Lake Marina, we asked how low was the water - 46 feet below the average level. Sheese. Did Colorado have a mild winter, or what. No wonder all the fires. The man who we asked said it will probably go down another 20 feet before the end of summer. The water rights are grandfathered to southern California, Arizona and New Mexico.
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| Gunnison River located down below |
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| The water looks really swift, I am cured of doing any more rafting |
Yesterday we drove to Crested Butte which is ski town located north of Gunnison. A lot of money is there, you can see so many homes perched in the mountain side, an active summer program with concerts every couple days, bike and running marathons, festivals just about every weekend. We found a nice little hike to do, did not walk far - too much horse poop, then decided to see where the dirt road lead to that we parked the car on.
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| Our parking spot, Crested Butte (very pretty area) |
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| We studied this, thought we did the right hike, only went about 1/4 mile |
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| Horse back riding stables near, and that means lots of horse poop |
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| Up we climbed towards the aspen tree line |
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| Wild flower festival going on in CB, we think it we were 2 weeks too late |
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| Hiked up into the Aspens, then turned around |
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| Stopped here to admire the view, smelled really bad, then moved on |
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| In the Aspens, saw the horses coming |
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| The place we stopped earlier, is the place they stop to do a group shot |
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| Our path down |
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| Beautiful area |
Drove about 6 miles to Gothic which was a silver mining town in the late 1880s. Town did not last long but in 1929 the town was turned into the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. Scientists come from all over the world to study biology, ecology, etc. The conditions of the mountain are perfect for studying plants and animals. Interesting place.
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| Lovely |
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Google this - quite an interesting place. Makes sense now
why there were so many people (and money) in Crested Butte. |
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| Our lunch spot, staring out into the wilderness |
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Many many people here in Gothic, they have active summer
program for kids |
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| Scientists sitting under the canopies, making notes and taking readings |
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