8th and 9th July 2023
We spent the weekend hiking and visiting the nearby towns. A few miles from us are Needle Rock, Castle Rock and Saddle Mountain. There was a hike up to Needle Rock which was 0.8 miles vertical! We did this early Saturday morning before it got hot. It was tough going up but harder coming down as stretches were fine grit which made it very slippery. The views were worth it.
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| Needle Rock |
On Sunday went to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
https://www.nps.gov/blca/index.htm
The Park has a South Rim with a large visitor center and scenic drive near the town of Montrose and the North Rim accessed near our park. The South Rim is more popular but gets very busy and is a 60 mile drive from Crawford. as there are no bridges across the canyon.
The North Rim was twelve miles from our campsite. We had been told it would get very busy and parking was limited so we got there just after the 8am opening. Most National Parks will allow dogs in but they are only allowed in very limited areas and not usually on trails which is why we have not visited very many National Parks on our travels so Morgan had to sit this one out.
We did the 1.5 mile each way Exclamation Point hike which was good fun and a lot easier on the legs than the previous days Needle Rock hike. We then drove the scenic rim drive stopping at each viewpoint to take in the views. The park is at 8,000ft elevation. I really need new adjectives, everywhere we are visiting is awesome!
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| The painted canyon walls |
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| No safety fences on this hike |
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| Scenic drive stops |
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| Black & white picture shows the rim drive |
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