8/26/08 - Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado

We drove around the rim road on the south side of the Black Canyon and took pictures at all the pull-outs and short trails. This canyon is very steep and deep – some of the canyon walls are as tall as 2,700 feet. The overlooks are scary – they are on the very edge of the sheer canyon walls. In many places light colored pegmatite dikes crisscross the darker gneiss rock of the canyon. We hooked up the trailer and drove a few miles down the road to Curcanti National Recreation Area where we saw one of the old steam trains that used to traverse the canyon – it was on the last remaining original trestle crossing the Gunnison River. Then we drove south over high mountain passes through Ouray to Silverton where we had a beer at Silverton Brewing. When we were here a few years ago we rode the narrow guage railroad train between Durango and Silverton. We camped for the night at a National Forest campground near Durango.