CNM & BCoTGNP

Colorado National Monument was one of the most beautiful, sparsely attended places that we’ve been on this trip yet. After a scenic drive up the canyon which gave Lisa heart palpitations, we found a picturesque campsite that overlooked the valley and city below. We just wandered around for our first evening and found a bench that overlooked the canyon and watched the sunset. We also met a couple from Ohio there and discussed all the weird food that we’ve been eating on the trip...

After a night with great stars, we woke up early and showed up at the visitor center for the “Red Canyon Ramble.” We were the only ones there besides the Ranger, so we got a personal geology, ecology and historical tour of the area. It turns out that the person responsible for promoting the canyon as a national monument wanted to name it Smith National Monument so that everyone named Smith would pilgrimage there to have a family reunion!



We drove out the beautiful southern road of Colorado National Monument towards Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The park featured one of the steepest canyons that I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s the result of two hundred million years of the Gunnison River carving away at the rocks - it only carves away an inch every century! The 1.7 billion year old gneiss and schist gives the canyon its black color, and the walls of the cliff are painted pink with igneous intrusions. We had a picnic at the last overlook and then worked our way backwards through the park.



We headed south into Durango, Colorado to meet Amy, Mike and Tom for a ride on the Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in the morning. We stopped at the Diamond Belle Saloon for dinner and had delicious food (CHOCOLATE AVALANCHE!) and entertainment from a great ragtime pianist.