Curecanti National Recreation Area
Colorado Travelog #30
Cimarron, CO - Thursday, 7 Jul 2022, 3pm
Although we left Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park just after noon today after a bunch of short hikes this morning we're not done with it. We left the south rim. We're driving around to the north rim! The canyon is so deep this is one of those cases where the opposite rims are a few hundred meters apart yet a 2½ hour drive around.
The drive today took even longer than that as there are several miles of road construction on US 50. (Yes, that US 50, " The Loneliest Road in America".) We were stopped several times to allow crews and machines to do their work. "We should have gone the other way around," I fumed. But the other way around wouldn't have brought us through Curecanti National Recreation Area. We turned adversity to serendipity as we stopped at one of the area's vista points and hiked around a bit.
A National Recreation Area is a different designation than a National Park. It's lower on the protection scale and more generous on the access scale. That's why, e.g., you see a power boat on the water in the picture above.
Geology-wise, it's basically the same place as Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The Gunnison River flows through narrow, steep canyons over 1,000' feet deep.
There's more water up here in this part of the canyon because it's controlled by dams. The dams are managed to maintain this part of the canyon as a reservoir. About 5 miles upstream, past one of the dams, the canyon is much lower and wider, allowing easy access to the river.
Now it's pedal-to-the-metal again to get to Black Canyon of the Gunnison's north rim before the light fades. Update: see how it turns out!
Cimarron, CO - Thursday, 7 Jul 2022, 3pm
Although we left Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park just after noon today after a bunch of short hikes this morning we're not done with it. We left the south rim. We're driving around to the north rim! The canyon is so deep this is one of those cases where the opposite rims are a few hundred meters apart yet a 2½ hour drive around.
The drive today took even longer than that as there are several miles of road construction on US 50. (Yes, that US 50, " The Loneliest Road in America".) We were stopped several times to allow crews and machines to do their work. "We should have gone the other way around," I fumed. But the other way around wouldn't have brought us through Curecanti National Recreation Area. We turned adversity to serendipity as we stopped at one of the area's vista points and hiked around a bit.
A National Recreation Area is a different designation than a National Park. It's lower on the protection scale and more generous on the access scale. That's why, e.g., you see a power boat on the water in the picture above.
Geology-wise, it's basically the same place as Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The Gunnison River flows through narrow, steep canyons over 1,000' feet deep.
There's more water up here in this part of the canyon because it's controlled by dams. The dams are managed to maintain this part of the canyon as a reservoir. About 5 miles upstream, past one of the dams, the canyon is much lower and wider, allowing easy access to the river.
Now it's pedal-to-the-metal again to get to Black Canyon of the Gunnison's north rim before the light fades. Update: see how it turns out!