Trip Reports from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Curecanti National Recreation Area and the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area.
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 ...
Saturday, May 20, 2017
This weekend Diane and I stayed closer to home since I was hoping to raft part of the lower Gunnison River on Sunday. I guess this plan worked out well since the battery in my Jeep died on Friday and I had to wait until Saturday morning at 9:00am to pickup a new one and then install it. Because of that delay we left home later in the morning and decided to go on a short hike into the Gunnison Gorge on the Chukar Trail. The Chukar Trail is one of four main trails on the ...
Saturday, February 6, 2016
After visiting the Shavano Valley Petroglyph Park near Montrose a few years ago I didn’t have any plans on returning. However, after Carol Patterson offered to guide me on a private tour of the park I couldn’t turn down the offer. Diane and Marty joined me on the tour this morning as we learned about these Ute petroglyphs from one of the leading experts in the field of rock art. Not only did we learn some interesting things about the Ute rock art in this location, Carol also showed us a few things I had missed ...
Saturday, October 17, 2015
It’s been a few years since I had been to many of the main overlooks along the South Rim in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and I thought it was time to finally get back for another visit. Diane and I left home early enough on Saturday morning so that we were able to make it to the Cedar Point overlook about a half hour before the sun came up. I spent that time photographing The Painted Wall and the deep canyon below us until shortly after the sunrise. Once the sun was ...
Sunday, February 8, 2015
After spending yesterday in Utah I decided to try hiking some new trails closer to home today. While I have been to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park a number of times, I realized that I have completely neglected the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area just downstream. That sounded like a nice place to hike today, especially since I have been talking to my friend Jackson about running that stretch of the Gunnison River in the future. My original plan for the day was to start out by hiking down the Chukar Trail. This ...
Backpacking Red Rock Canyon
Saturday & Sunday, June 7-8, 2014
Deep, Steep and Narrow. That’s how the National Park Service describes the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and it’s pretty accurate. The Black Canyon is comprised of some of the steepest cliffs, oldest rock, and craggiest spires in North America. I’ve wanted to hike down into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison for quite a while now and thought I would try Red Rock Canyon, the easiest route, for my first time. This trail is about 3.5 miles in length and only drops 1330 feet to the river. Compared to ...
Saturday, January 11, 2014
On Saturday, Diane and I drove down to Ouray for the annual Ice Festival. This is the third year in a row that I have gone to photograph the climbers and I always have a great time. Maybe next year I’ll try my hand at a little easy ice climbing while I am there 😉
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Sunday, December 30, 2012
For my final trip of the year I had the urge to get out snowshoeing again, except I didn’t want to just head up onto the Grand Mesa again. I wanted to try somewhere new that still wasn’t too far away from home. I realized that I hadn’t made it to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park all year and I know they have some snowshoe trails near the Visitor’s Center, so I thought it would be a great place to check out.
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Saturday, September 24, 2011
After staying up late on Friday night, Amanda and I slept in on Saturday morning. When we finally woke up (between 8am-9am- which is sleeping in for us), we had some breakfast and then headed down to the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We have visited the South Rim a few times before, but for some reason had neglected to visit the North Rim. We arrived shortly after lunchtime and hiked to all the overlooks along the North Rim Road. The lighting was bad during this time of the ...
Saturday, June 17, 2009
Amanda and I headed down to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park for a day trip. This trip we only checked out the South Rim and headed down to the East Portal. We are planning on heading to the North Rim in the future sometime. Just some photos from the day…
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
Today, Amanda and I headed over to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. While most of the roads weren’t open this time of the year, we did a little hiking around the South Rim.
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