We stayed the night at Crawford State Park where we were
able to take showers for the first time in four days. It was getting to be an
imminent problem. The next morning, we headed to the north rim of Black Canyon
of the Gunnison National Park.
We briefly visited the south rim on our 2010 trip and we
were excited to see the canyon from a new perspective. The north rim is
certainly the road less traveled with its dirt road access, sometimes open
ranger station and primitive campsites. We parked and hiked to exclamation
point where we realized how sheer the north side of the canyon is. It turned
out to be a gorgeous outlook with striking views, which was fortunate since we
picked the hike based on the name.
For the rest of the afternoon, we drove the road along the
rim stopping at each overlook along the way. I enjoyed playing the trumpet
across to the visitors on the south rim lookouts; I’ve been ruining wilderness
experiences since 1982. We ate our lunch huddled under one of the few pinyon
pine trees that we could find. Natural shade is not a common phenomenon in
these parts of Colorado.
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| A Little Bit of Dixieland |
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| The Same View Without Trumpet... |
Easing on down the road, we made our destination to be
Ridgway State Park, which was at the crossroads of Ouray and Telluride. We set
up camp for the next two nights intending to explore these towns over coming
days.
Driving into Ouray, we weren’t sure what to do. We walked up
the street, down the street and finally headed to cascade falls, which is accessible
from the town. Admiring the high falls, we decided that we needed a longer hike
for the day.
We stopped in at the visitor center where the Ouray
perimeter trail was recommended to us. It was a five-mile trail, which took us
along the cliffs that surround the old mining town. We were taken to the top of
cascade falls and along a suspension bridge over a slim box canyon. Just as we
were getting tired, we ended up back in town where we stopped in O’Brien’s Pub
for a bite.
After lunch we went to the Bachelor-Syracuse mine for a
tour. We walked along the tracks into the old silver mine and learned about the
terrible working conditions associated with mining, especially in the late
nineteenth century. It made us appreciative of the way that we earn our living
because we didn’t die of rock-lung at the age of twenty-five. Interestingly
there are two mines that may be opening back up in Ouray.
In the evening, we attended a “talk” on “geology” which
turned out to be someone showing pictures of their hikes around Ouray. The
“talk” contained no actual geology. It was a bright night back at Ridgway State
Park because of the full “super-moon” which was supposed to appear closer to
the Earth than a normal full moon.
In the morning, we packed our tent and headed toward
Telluride where we were told to park in the mountain village. We did as told
and got a shady spot in the parking garage. Since our car was at the ski
resort, we got to ride the free gondola into downtown. Apparently it is the
only public transportation of its kind in the United States.
We got to Telluride on the last day of the Bluegrass
Festival and after looking at the lineup for the day, we were determined to get
in. We found two guys selling tickets since they had to drive home and we
headed for the gates. Since we have been traveling like hippies for the
entirety of the trip, we figured that we may as well hang with hippies for the
day.
As we entered the festival we sat behind a group dressed as
pirates and enjoyed listening to Bela Fleck’s virtuosity on the banjo. At times
it was hard to realize that he was playing the banjo and not something with
more strings like a lute.
We took the gondola back to the car and got our seats and
some snacks for the rest of the day where we got to listen to The Infamous
Stringdusters, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, Hot Rize, and Jackson
Browne. It was an incredible lineup of high caliber musicians and at times the
people watching were as eye popping as the stage show. At one point, there was
an all-festival marshmallow fight. Oh to be back at UVM again…
Since we didn’t have a plan for camping for the night, we
headed back to the car before the last act: the Telluride House Band. We were
sad to miss it since it threw together many of the top acts of the festival to
perform in an all-star bluegrass band. When we were driving out of Telluride, I
flipped on the radio and was excited to hear that there was a live broadcast
from the festival. We didn’t have to miss the last band at all!
We found a Bureau of Land Management campsite about twenty
miles outside of Telluride and fell asleep listening to the last part of the
festival on the radio. Our next stop will be Moab where we plan to explore
Arches National Park.
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