Day 31

Day 31 - Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

Moab, UT to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, CO

We awoke to a much better continental breakfast at the La Quinta Inn, which included make-your-own waffles. We had decided the night before to adjust our plans once again. Rather than staying two nights in Denver, we opted to explore a little more of Colorado, and headed to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, CO, located between Montrose and Gunnison on RT-50. On the way we stopped at a WalMart for food and at a Hastings Book Store to trade in some of the books on tape for new ones. We reached the Black Canyon at 3:30 and were relieved to find that there were plenty of campsites available. The Black Canyon was instated as a National Park in 1999. It was created over the course of 2 million years by the Gunnison River and is one of the steepest, deepest, and narrowest canyons in the USA.

The granite walls are lined with rose quartz making them looked painted.

We drove through the park, stopping at a number of the overlooks and walking right up to the edge. We were on the South Rim and could look across the Canyon 1500 feet away and see the road that ran along the North Rim. However to actually get to the North Rim from where we were you would have to drive over 80 miles. We contemplated the idea of a zip line to connect the two sides, but couldn't really imagine what it would feel like to hang the equivalent of two Empire State Buildings above the river. We returned to our campsite to make the fire and cooked up some honey roasted chicken with a medley of baby peppers, onions, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.

Finally the clouds stayed away and we watched as the Milky Way and Jupiter rose from the east. We fell asleep to the scrounging sounds of the mice that lived in the bushes by our tent.

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