Day 4: Black Canyon of Gunnison and Colorado National Park

Waking up in Montrose proved to be a beautiful morning to explore the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park. We headed a few minutes east to the entrance to the park. We were both surprised when there was a sign on the park station, "No fees during the winter season". I didn't know that the NPS ever waived fees, even if it was cold. 

We carried on to the visitor center to get a map from the ranger. We followed South Rim Road to 11 lookouts along the way. We were unable to hike with Kobi as dogs are not allowed in the inner canyon, so we stopped at all the lookouts. Some of these has short trails a couple hundred yards long and each one was well worth the stop!

I haven't gone too crazy about the rocks, minerals, or fossils in area of the areas we have visited, however I have to mention a few things here. When the explorers came through this area they called the canyon "black" because of the dark rocks and the fact that part of the canyon only receives 33 minutes of sunlight. The dark rocks are black gneiss, a metamorphic rock. There are also incredible pegmatite dikes running through the canyon like an artist painted stripes on the rock walls. Pegmatites are very cool! These large crystals were formed and are visible because the cooling time was very long, allowing chemicals to form the structure that you see in the large mineral chunks in these walls! There were a lot of micas, both muscovite (light) and biotite (dark). 

The photo directly above is Painted Wall! One of the most beautiful views!!!

The Gunnison River rages below and many rapids are visible. The river cut the canyon deeper than the Royal Gorge. The first outlook we stopped at was ~1700ft down to the river, whereas the last outlook was more than ~2700 ft down! 

The trails around the South Rim Road were dotted with many junipers, pinyon pine, and the gnarly branches and trunks of trees long gone. There were many yucca which I always thought were cacti, however they are actually the lily family. 

A truly beautiful park! We hopped back in the car and headed westward yet again to the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction. 

The Colorado National Monument is appropriately named! There are alternating layers of sedimentary rocks that dance in and out of the scenic drive going through the park. The scenery is amazing, not only because of the sedimentary strata (layers), but because you can see the mountains in the distance, and the city below. The structures within the park are beautiful as well and as you will see above, there were rock climbing on that high pinnacle. As we approached the visitor center, we happened upon a herd of Bighorn sheep. There were young and old, male and female, and hungry and not! Nate snapped these great pictures!

After the Monument, we found a little motel and a brewery to watch the Packers completely destroy the Bears!

Next stop: Home! Or at least the closest thing we have right now.