Colorado
Grand Canyon of the Gunnison and Colorado National Monument
On Thursday, June 17, 2021, we left Montrose
and drove about a half hour to the Black
Canyon of the Gunnison National Park,
arriving at 7:30 am. The view was spectacular.
We drove to a half dozen view-points in all;
each required a short walk. One was at
the top of a rock canyon 2,300 feet above
the Gunnison River. Unlike Arches and Canyonlands, Black Canyon was not crowded.
But like the other parks, the visitor centers had limited services due to COVID.
Pulpit Rock is above and
to the right is a view of
the Gunnison River
From there, we retraced our route back to Montrose through lush farm country. At Delta, we picked up lunch and then drove through Cedaredge (the south side of Grand Mesa) up to the mountains, about 7,000 feet in elevation. We had our lunch back in Cedaredge, elevation 6,200, which had a nice city park. We also took a brief gander at old “pioneer town”.
We then drove to the city of Grand Junction to meet up with our friends, who also traveled from California. We’ll be traveling with them for the next two weeks.
We stayed in downtown Grand Junction which had a nice Main Street with landscaping along with art, benches and many restaurants, cafés, breweries and shops. We found it a very pleasant place to stay for two nights.
On Friday, June 18, 2021, we drove about a half hour to the nearby Colorado National Monument where we spent the morning. The Monument was established in 1911, but is not particularly well known. We thought it was quite beautiful and reminded us somewhat of our visit to Sedona last fall (although the colors of red were different). We went to several viewpoints and took a couple of short walks, including Window Rock, Otto’s Trail, Coke Oven’s Overlook and Lower/Upper Ute Canyon. Otto was an explorer of the Canyon in the early 20th Century. There was also a stop called “Cold Shivers Point” looking straight down! The roads on both ends of the Monument have wonderful views.
Coke Ovens
On the left is Window Rock, and on the right is a formation that is traditionally climbed on July 4th and hence is called Independence Monument.
Ute Canyon
We enjoyed the Monument immensely, and it was not crowded like the National Parks near Moab. From there we returned to Grand Junction for a short rest and lunch.
After lunch, we took a scenic drive to the Grand Mesa over the scenic byway (higher elevation) to cool off a bit. We saw some beautiful lakes and wildlife, including big horn sheep.
Tomorrow, we will leave Grand Junction and head towards Vernal, Utah.
