September 24, 2019

It was a restless night for those of us on the river side of the hotel. Beginning at 12:25 a.m. a white Honda’s car horn security system blasted 72 times, paused 30 seconds, then another 72 blasts. This alarm persisted for over an hour, with intervals of 20 seconds to as long as 12 minutes of silence before the next bombardment. The owner probably had a room on the pool side and was not disturbed.

Because the Wi-Fi was weak and slow at the hotel, we chose the Long Spur Café for breakfast based on its free Wi-Fi and the Chorizo Scrambler on the menu. The batch of over 70 photos from the past two days were uploaded and added to the blog in about five minutes while we enjoyed our breakfast. Steps 1,968

We started the day’s journey a little after 8:35, due to the one habitually late young woman in the group. We were back on Highway 550, known as the San Juan Skyway. The San Juan Natural Forest surrounds the area, which is 1.9 billion acres. It is a scenic route around the San Juan Mountains. Matt informed us that there is a Memorial Day (last weekend in May) Bicycle Race along the 47-mile uphill from Durango to Silverton (3,000 feet of elevation gain) that races the train. The best riders can complete the ride in about 2.5 hours beating the train by one hour. This area can get 10 to 15 meters of snow each winter and is skiing country in the winter. This part of Colorado is in the mineral belt which stretches to Boulder, Colorado. In the latter part of the 19^thcentury until the end of the 20^thcentury, minerals such as gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper were mined. We had travelled about 15 minutes when we glimpsed the 8 a.m. departure steam train on its 3.5-hour journey to Silverton. We are travelling through the San Juan National Forest and again crossed the 10,640 feet elevation Coal Bank Pass. The road is a paved two-lane highway with passing lanes and a small shoulder, which twists around the cliffs ascending, almost 950 meters, toward Silverton. On one of the switchbacks down from the Coal Bank Pass, we had a great view of Silverton in the valley. We had a quick stop at the Visitor Center on the edge of town, which we almost walked to yesterday. Next was a photo stop at the overlook of the old Idarado Mine and Mill, in the Red Mountain Mining District. In its heyday, there were 30 active mines in the area. It was a pause in the series of switchbacks on the ledge hugging road to Ouray. Mining buildings, tailings and the Silverton Railway bridge are visible.

We stopped for a lunch break in former mining town of Ouray, at an elevation of 2,570 meters. We also took a picture of the town from a switchback as we descended into the Uncompahgre Valley. There was not a cloud in the sky and the outside temperature was about 17°C. Matt mentioned that the Cascade Falls could be seen by walking a couple of streets over to the road up to the trailhead, about one kilometer. Just the street up to the trailhead had a grade up of at least 10%. The path was a bit less steep until the bridge where a shelter, off to the side, gave you a lovely distant view of the falls (which we later discovered could be seen from Main Street). Across the bridge, there was a steep narrow rocky trail going up another 400 meters to the basin of the Cascade Falls and a magnificent view of the mountain side with the thin stream of water gushing down creating a mist as it hit bottom and the water continued down as a shallow creek, but is a raging torrent during rain storms and spring runoff. After the hike to the falls, we strolled back to the town and admired the quaint one and two storey Victorian houses on the way to the main street of Ouray, population about 700, We found Mouse Chocolate and Coffee, where we ordered ice cream cones that were delicious. We took pictures of some of the century old buildings, like the 1887 Beaumont Hotel and the B.P.O.E (Elks) building. Steps 7,903

Back onto Highway 550, we passed through the Uncompahgre Valley, which is irrigated by water from the distant Gunnison River. In the early 1900s, it took thousands of men four years to cut a large tunnel through the indigenous rock to bring water into the sunny valley. The carving through the rock was so arduous that the average worker only stayed two weeks before quitting from exhaustion. It is a lovely green valley today. During the drive Matt played a DVD about the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park explaining its history. The erosion of the dense indigenous rock is a slow rate on one inch per century. The Black Canyon is narrow and 77 kilometers long, but only part of it is enclosed in the National Park. Millions of years ago there were volcanoes and the cooled lava has given the rock its colour. In 1933 some of the canyon was given National Monument status but not until 1999 did it become a National Park.

Before the turnoff to the park, we passed through the town of Montrose, turning on to highway 50. Once in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, we stopped at three places along the South Rim winding road. The first viewpoint was Chasm View with its spectacular view 685 meters down to the Gunnison River. You could see several sets of shallow rapids. The steep canyon is almost deep enough for the height of two Empire StatBuildings. Only 400 meters away was the viewpoint for the Painted Walls with the streaks of coloured rock. This was other spot for another view of the Gunnison River. The bushes were changing to the yellows of autumn. The second stop was a short photo op at Sunset View. The trail down to the outlook was about 200 meters of a sandy rock-strewn path. The sun was high enough that the shadows were just starting to show. The third stop was the South Rim Visitor Center and Gunnison Point, elevation 2,487 meters. The150 meter route to the point was sandy in spots and rock steps in others, but with log railings to use as you descended to the fenced view point. From all these stops, you can hear the sound of the water far below. There was a National Parks gift shop which included souvenirs from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and other National Parks in the four-state area.

We were back on highway 50 by 3 pm headed for the town of Gunnison. Matt played a CD of travelling music, mostly from the 1970s. The drive was just over two hours on twisting cliff side roads with views of the valleys belong transitioning into a plateau as we neared Gunnison. We passed Lake Fork, a recreation area that drains into the Gunnison River. The lake had tiny white caps due to wind. Today’s journey was about 280 kilometers.

Gunnison‘s elevation is 2,347 meters, which is higher than Durango. When we arrived at the Comfort Inn Gunnison, Matt distributed the room cards. While the luggage was transferred to our rooms, we walked 250 meters to the Palisades Restaurant. As we waited to be seated Lina and Doug came in and we asked them to join us. We had a great chat and dinner, then walked back to the hotel before the sun had set. Total steps 13,019