Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado

We are trying to visit all (most?) of the country's national parks, so today we will visit one of the newer parks (created in 1999): Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We're not sure who came up with this name, but we think they should have just called it Black Canyon National Park. Anyway, we head out to the park and of course our first stop is again the Visitor Center, where we look at the exhibits and watch the movie. This movie is actually very good (some of the national park's have movies that were produced in the 1970s and really need to be updated). Part of the movie is about Reverand Warner, who was the person responsible for getting the Black Canyon designated as a national monument in the 1930s. This Episcopal minister loved the canyon and would often use the canyon as a theme for his sermons. He preached that "God gives abundantly, but not limitless" -- we need to take care of the beautiful places on earth that he has given us. The man was "green" before it became fashionable.

The park is essentially a scenic drive around the top of the canyon. The walls of the canyon are too steep for anyone but experienced mountain climbers.

The logo of the park includes two "dragons" in the sky. The logo is based on these two "dragons" on the side of the canyon:

So we stop at most of the 12 look-outs on the South Rim. The look-outs are of the canyon; it's a hot day and getting in and out of the hot car make for a not-so-pleasant drive. We take one short hike at the end of the drive, Warner Peak Trail. It's a scenic hike and it feels good to be out of the car.

After the scenic drive we take the East Portal Drive down to the river, part of the Curecanti National Recreation Area. The road is narrow, with no guardrails and some of the drive is somewhat scary. When we get to the bottom, Joe and Jere walk on a trail by the river while I sit and enjoy the scenery.

We head back to the RV Park to play a round of miniature golf

and then head to Wendys again for a late dinner (the campground gave us coupons for Buy 1 Get 1 Free Combo Meal coupons for Wendys; good deal and Joe likes Wendys).