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Tag: green mountain

Gunnison Gorge: Red Rocks to Gunnison Forks

Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area | Friday – Sunday, April 25-27, 2025

After going on a last minute trip into the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness in Utah last weekend, I wanted to stay even closer to home this weekend and thought that this would be a good opportunity for me to return to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Although as of last June I have hiked all of the official trails within Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, there are still quite a few trails and roads in the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area that I have not hiked or driven yet, so I figured I could check out a few more of them as I continue to explore the area more thoroughly. I left from work on Friday afternoon and made my way down to the Gunnison Gorge.

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Final Trails at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison

After Work Adventures | Friday, June 7, 2024

After finishing my last hike at the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park two weekends ago, that left me with only one short trail in the entire park that I had not hiked yet, along with maybe a couple of other short walks to overlooks that I could not remember if I had ever been out to before, though I most likely had a long time ago. Since I was going to be in the area to start driving the Rimrocker Trail from Montrose to Moab on Saturday morning, I figured that I might as well head over to the Black Canyon on Friday evening so I could spend a few hours there and finish hiking all the trails in the park. As usual, I left work on Friday and made my way down to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Although it is currently the busy season for the park, I was hoping it wouldn’t be quite as busy because of the ongoing US 50 bridge closure and road construction inside the park.

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Memorial Day Weekend Along the Black Canyon

Memorial Day Weekend | Friday – Sunday, May 24-26, 2024

This Memorial Day Weekend I decided to stay a little closer to home so I could spend some time along the Gunnison River in both the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Since it’s getting to be that time of the year when the desert is starting to get a little too warm for me and there is still too much snow up in the high country, luckily this area along the rim of the Black Canyon is in-between and usually just right at this time of the year.

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Mountains of Minerals: Rocky Gulch & Maggie Gulch

San Juan Triangle | Friday – Sunday, July 14-16, 2023

To escape the rising temperatures in the lower valleys this weekend, I decided to head up into the San Juan Mountains near Silverton so I could spend some time exploring and hiking in Rocky Gulch and Maggie Gulch which are both situated along the Continental Divide. I left from work on Friday afternoon and made my way south over Red Mountain Pass to Silverton and then headed up Cunningham Gulch and Rocky Gulch where I followed the steep Jeep road all the way up to over 13,000 feet. From the overlook at the end of the road I stopped to eat dinner and enjoyed the expansive alpine views.

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West Elk Loop: Last of the Curecanti Trails

Curecanti National Recreation Area | Saturday & Sunday, June 24-25, 2023

After hiking through the Dark Canyon of Anthracite Creek on Saturday morning I returned to Hotchkiss and grabbed a burger from 133 BRGR for an early lunch and then continued following the West Elk Loop Scenic Byway into the Curecanti National Recreation Area so that I could finish what I started last month and complete hiking all of the official trails within the park. I planned to start with the Neversink Trail, which is located just a few miles outside of Gunnison at the very eastern edge of the Recreation Area, and then I would work my way back west toward home. Since none of the three trails I had left to hike were very long, I also explored a couple of the backroads along the way that headed up toward the edge of the West Elk Wilderness in the Gunnison National Forest.

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