The Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Friday 5th - Saturday 6th May
We left Zapata Falls campground with a fair amount of excitement because we had two nights in an AirBNB cabin ahead of us. The previous eleven nights of camping had been quite challenging with limited facilities, which included no running water in some cases and no showers at most of the sites. We were really looking forward to a long hot shower!
Our next stop was Crawford, CO on the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This was a place I had heard was really impressive, but I actually knew very little about. We had looked into camping at the National Park but the campgrounds did not yet appear to be open. I think we were fortunate not to be camping - we had no appreciation of how much higher and cooler the weather is in this area. The overnight low for Crawford was predicted to be 27oF. It was a beautiful drive over, and we had some time to spare, so we dropped in to the tourist information center in Gunnison for suggestions. They recommended a drive up the canyon towards the Taylor Reservoir. We followed their advice and had a chilly picnic by the river, somewhat shocked to see patches of snow right down to the waters edge. The lady in the visitors center also told us that she thought the north rim of the Black canyon was still closed for the season. As with the Grand Canyon there are two discreet approaches to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison; from the south (lower elevation and more popular) or from the north (higher elevation and dirt road access). What we hadn’t figured out is that it is a 75 mile drive from one to the other. In planning our AirBNB we didn't do much research and were blissfully unaware that going to Crawford on the north side might be quite limiting. As we continued our drive westward, we reached Sapinero where the road splits with Rt 50 heading to the south and Rt 94 going to the north of the canyon. We were perplexed to see that we had only 30 miles to go to Crawford, but it would take an hour and a quarter to get their. The drive was wild … a good road, but super windy and incredible exposure for at least the first half. We finally arrived at our cabin feeling a little shell shocked and somewhat deflated by the prospect of a 150 mile round trip the following day if we wanted to visit the National Park via the south rim.
Over the next few hours, we realized that by pure luck we were actually in an excellent situation. Firstly, our cabin was delightful; a beautiful “tiny house” with living room, kitchen, king size bed and luxurious bathroom, all set on a hillside overlooking beautiful scenery. We had long hot showers, cooked chicken vindaloo for dinner and even managed to do a load of laundry. Our host Rachel gave us some good suggestions for a hike the following day and we also found out from the “interwebs” that the north rim was actually open (as of May 1st). The area north of the canyon turns out to be absolutely beautiful, all the more so at the minute because they had extremely heavy snowfall over the winter and everything is looking super-green. There are wonderful hikes, rivers and lakes, all surrounded by snow capped mountains.
This morning we hiked the Crystal Creek trail, east of the National Park, out towards the north rim. It was a lovely walk with great views, but there were also several sections of snow and Gloria decided to pass on the final half-mile to the overlook because it involved post-holing through deep banks of snow. The view at the end was worth the effort, but I think Gloria made the right decision. After lunch at a restaurant in Crawford we drove the dirt road up to the north rim and hiked out the trail to Exclamation Point. It was an easy walk and the views at the end were breathtaking. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is at some points over 2800 feet deep and less than 1200 feet from north to south rim. It is scary just to walk up to the overlooks for the view. The light wasn’t brilliant today, particularly in the afternoon, and to be honest I don’t know what the best lighting situations would be, but I do know that my photos don’t do justice to how spectacular this place is.
We move on to Moab, Utah tomorrow and we had considered a side trip back to the south rim, but having seen such great views today I think we decided not to do that. On the advice of people we met on the trail we do plan to drive to Moab via Paradox Canyon. More on that later …
Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment