Trip Reports from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Curecanti National Recreation Area and the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park | Saturday, May 10, 2025
After hiking all of the trails above the rim in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park I’ve been thinking about finally trying one of the Inner Canyon Wilderness routes down to the Gunnison River which have been on my to-do list for a very long time. Although Diane and I backpacked down Red Rock Canyon almost ten years ago, which is definitely the easiest route into the canyon, I’ve been apprehensive about trying the other routes into the canyon since I’m not really a big fan of ...
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 ...
After Work Adventures | Friday, June 14, 2024
This weekend I was going to be staying close to home so I could spend a little time on the Colorado River, but since a cold font had come through the area and dropped temperatures significantly for the day, I thought it would be a good idea to head over to the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area after work so I could go for a scenic drive on the Smith Mountain Jeep Road and hike to a couple of highpoints along the way. After leaving work on Friday afternoon I drove over ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Curecanti National Recreation Area | Saturday, May 13, 2023
After spending last weekend on the Yampa River, Jackson and I had already planned another river trip for this Sunday on the Colorado River near home, so today I wanted to find something a little more local to do. While looking over my maps trying to decide where to go, I eventually settled on hiking a couple of shorter trails in the Curecanti National Recreation Area (NRA) that are all located within the upper end of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Aside from an overnight backpacking trip down the Hermits ...
Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area | Sunday, May 8, 2022
After spending yesterday morning on the Gunnison River in the Dominguez – Escalante National Conservation Area, I decided to head out early this morning to get in a couple of short hikes along the rim of the Gunnison Gorge since I’ve wanted to spend more time exploring this area. I left home in the dark and made my way through Delta to Olathe and then headed east into the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area where I stopped to take a short hike up the Eagle Valley Trail just after sunrise ...
Cimarron Point into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison | Curecanti National Recreation Area
Saturday & Sunday, June 13-14, 2020
The next couple of weeks are about to get pretty busy for us since we will be moving into a new house, but I wanted to try to get one more quick overnight backpacking trip in before that happens. Since we still had a lot to do at home, I was looking for something easier and close to home where I didn’t think we would run into many people. After looking over some maps, I thought it would be nice ...
Saturday & Sunday, May 19-20, 2018
Since Diane and I went to a concert on Friday night and stayed out later than normal, we decided to stay closer to home this weekend and went on an easy and relaxing overnight camping trip to the North Rim of the Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park. It has been a while since the last time I visited the North Rim and figured it was time to go back, especially since Diane had never been there before. It felt a little weird staying in Colorado for the weekend since I’m used to ...
