Finishing Colorado

So after glamping in the Tetons and given that the snow was now falling in the northern states, we decided to start our run south.  We were due in the SF bay area for thanksgiving, and had about a month to kill.  Sounds terrible, I know.  We decided to finish Colorado and meet with some friends with last minute plans at the Grand Canyon.  So we hopped in Ele and started to drive.

Rewind 6 months...We're getting our final things packed, going over itineraries and Stacy's coworker -DK- tells us that we have to visit his friend.  Tells us he is just a righteous dude with a great family in the middle of Wyoming.  So our first cold call friendship was initiated.  One of many to come.

Back to the present, in the middle of Wyoming.  We make the connection with our new friend, Jason, at a small Mexican place in the shopping district of Casper, WY.  He shows up on an old school Harley Davidson and  proceeds to agree to be our tour guide for the following day.  That day began with cinnamon roll french toast, proceeded to lessons in pleistocene paleontology, and ended with wood working spells. 

I would like to extend my thanks to Jason and Patti for showing us interesting things, good times, and all that cold call friends can be.   And for making Stacy a wand, she is driving me nuts waving it around (and she had to have it with her during the Fantastic Beasts screening).

So as we cross the WY/CO border I get a phone call from a gost of my past.  A Schrecengost.  He will be out hunting Elk for a week in Colorado and was wondering what area of the country we would be in...call it fate.  

A day or so later and we are tipsy from visiting a brewpub, relaxing along a stream, watching the boys fish, and being forced to have third helpings of pancakes and bacon.  It was good seeing you, Kirk, and thank your dad and family for the hospitality.

So...back to the National Park thingy.  I mentioned something about 'finishing' Colorado.  Well there are three parks left in that state.  So onto Black Canyon of the Gunnison we go.  This place is where the Gunnison river encountered some seriously tough gneiss and schist in it's journey to join the Colorado.  The result is a very steep and deep slice in the middle of the southwest Colorado hills.

Steep, as in 2200' straight walls, keeping in mind that El Cap is just over 3000'.  So this little hidden park boasts walls almost the height of the big walls of Yosemite.   What is there to do?  Rock climb, of course.  Very difficult rock climbing, like above our ability rock climbing.  What else is there to do? One can "hike" down into the canyon in one of the draws (drainage's) that line the sides.  

I say hike because it's technically class 3 scrambling (as in 1800' drop over 1 mile distance) over loose talus and large boulders.  So we decided that amongst our nature hikes along the rim, to do an easy draw on the south rim, followed by a more difficult draw on the north rim.  Both were steep and really fun scrambling.  

We took a nap in the sun at the bottom of the south rim, and waved to some hardcore whitewater kayakers as they floated by.

The north rim draw was more...interesting.  The scramble was fun!

A plus was the cool geology.

On the minus side there were all the trees in our way for the last 300' of the draw.  They were the only plant with any leaves left on it this late in the season and we kept having to duck under them and climb through low branches.  See the yellow-leaved trees everywhere?

FRIGGIN' POISON IVY!!! TREES!!!!

So after scrubbing our hands in the river and carefully hiking back out, we said our goodbyes to 'The Black'. We then did a small side trip after my parents recommended taking the historic (and slow) Durango-Silverton Railroad.  So we enjoyed a day steaming up into the Rockies.

Next stop?  Mesa Verde NP! This park protects two major mesa's (and some minor areas) with significant numbers of cliff dwellings.  The ancestral Puebloan were a typical farming culture that utilized the mesa tops for agriculture.  They lived on the tops in half-sunken homes for thousands of years.  About 900-1000 years ago, they utilized the layer of (what is now called) cliff house sandstone (which eroded to create massive protected areas in the cliff sides) to construct the Pueblos that we see today.

 The part I found most interesting is that these cliff side villages were only occupied for 100-150 years before being abandoned.  The real problem at the time, as it is today for many, was water.  They spent what I can only imagine as many hours carving and constructing hundreds of structures around natural springs, only to have the next 25 years be remarkably dry.  They left for greener pastures around the turn of the 13th century.  End history lesson, here are some pictures from our tour...

Oh and on the second farther mesa, where all services are done for the season, there is a paved path still open that allowed foot-powered wheeled devices!!  Where else can you skateboard to archaeological sites?

And we made some wild friends (big and small) on the path.

The final CO park is Sand Dunes NP.  We started things off right by heading up the soft sand Jeep road that is high clearance 4WD only... *pounds chest*  ...And then promptly turned around 200 ft in after I 'sort of' got the car stuck and panicked.  

We spent the next two days climbing the high dunes, napping in the sun, and jumping into the soft sand.

And the day after that cleaning sand out of everything we own...

We started this post with people (rather than places) and will end on the same note.  This was our second time through CO, and we needed to make good on a visit with a old college pal of mine in Denver.  And plus, we get to go to a 2-year-old's birthday party and have burritos!!! A big thank you to the Kauffmann's for the hospitality.

A few days back we got another message from an old coworker of Stacy's.  He was leaving Pittsburgh for a store in what state? Colorado.  So off we drove up to Boulder to meet up with Nick and his new roommates: Emily, and Mr. Dewitt.  

Boulder is a cool place.  We went to pubs, cooked, showered(!), and climbed some rocks.   It was a fun few days and we will be sure to return.  Thanks guys!

Onward to new adventures!!

-K