I just thought I would let you know we did make it to Montrose and Gunnison. Man, the Black Canyon was spectacular. I would have been very disappointed if I hadn't seen that beautiful area of Colorado, had I know it was that breath taking.
Hey uscg1984, since there is no USC football this weekend
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That's great to hear. The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is definitely one of the best kept secrets in the Rockies. It's absolutely spectacular. And the lack of tourists makes it even better.
Shhhhhhh . . . don't tell anyone about it.
Shhhhhhh . . . don't tell anyone about it.
No kidding, I enjoyed every minute we spend there especially the no traffic part. It reminded me of Wyoming and Montana and I loved the fact in those states one could drive for hours and only see a few cars. In fact, I enjoyed all of Colorado except the Sand Dunes. But the scenery getting to the Sand Dunes was pretty so it wasn't a wasted trip driving there.
We saw a lot of beautiful country in Colorado but I guess Wyoming and Montana are still my favorite two states. I'm going back there next summer. I love truly love Wy and Montana, in fact if I could talk my wife into moving there I would be gone in a minute.
Tomorrow I will list the places we visited in Colorado, I'm a little too tired right now.
As promised, our trip in a nutshell.
We landed in Denver about 8:30 AM MT Tuesday, September 4th, naturally got our rental car and headed to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We visited Estes Park and the hotel that inspired Steven King to write “The Shining”. I thought at first the movie was filmed in Estes Park but it wasn’t according to what I was told. The Stanley Streamer that was in the movie was parked in the lobby.
After that we drove Trail Ridge Road and saw some incredible scenery and wild life. Got pictures of a huge 5 or 6 point Elk and later that day my wife got a picture of a huge Bull Moose.
We met our friends late that afternoon. They live in Denver but have a cabin in Grand Lake. We went to dinner in Grand Lake that night and ate at a place that was just so so. But the little Town of Grand Lake had the look of an old western town. And boy do I love me some old western themes.
We spend the night with our friends and took off for Colorado Springs the next morning. We visited the Garden of the Gods, which we loved, tried to drive Pikes Peak, but the attendant at the entrance said we could only drive part way due to the weather and we won’t be able to see anything. So obviously we didn’t get to see Pikes Peak. I was very disappointed that we didn’t.
We then drove to the Air Force Academy and visited the cadet chapel. It had a very unique exterior design but the interior of the chapel was very vanilla.
The next day we took off for Canon City to see the Royal Gorge. We took the train ride and it was nice, saw some interesting scenery. But after a while on the train ride it got kind of boring seeing rock walls for miles and miles. We also intended to walk across the bridge but didn’t and I can’t remember why.
Then we took off for the Sand Dunes. For some reason I thought we were going to see a desert but it looked like someone had back up a couple of Dump Trucks and dumped out a couple of loads of sand. We didn’t even go into the visitor center. While the Sand Dunes were very disappointing to us, we did see some beautiful country on the way there. And it was a different kind of scenery; it was like driving in the flat lands but there were beautiful mountains on all sides in the far horizon. My advice if you visit Colorado don’t waste your time on the Sand Dunes. Just visit Pond Branch, SC instead. LOL!
We then took off for Durango, and we were so tried we checked into our hotel and went to sleep and it was only about 6:00 PM MT but we had been driving all day.
Durango was a fairly nice place to visit, had a very interesting history. We spent two days there. We drove from Durango to Silverton and it was a very ravishing drive. I could have stopped every 100 yards, at least, and took pictures/shots. We then drove to Ouray. That drive was spectacular, it’s called the million dollar highway because it cost a million dollars to built in the 1800s.
Seems like after Ouray we hit another neat little town, I can’t remember exactly. I am going to have to get my pictures and camcorder shots out to keep some of the things we saw and places we visited straight in my mind. Quite honestly we crammed too much in our eight or nine days while visiting Colorado.
But then we went to Montrose and then to the Black Canyon which as our friend uscg1984 said is the most underrated and best keep secret in Colorado. After the Black Canyon, which was a very relaxing drive, we ended up in Gunnison a very nice little town. We went to the visitor center to get directions to Maroon Bells, the most photographed scene in Colorado. Well, come to find out it was not accessible by car and required an eight hour hike to get to Maroon Bells, which definitely left me out. Thirty years ago I could have hiked it but not today. LOL! I could but it would take much longer than eight hours.
But anywho the Visitor Center put us on a great drive to Glenwood Springs. We went to Crested Butte went through a couple of passes (which I can’t remember the name of off the top of my head) and actually drove on some dirt roads. Man we again saw some beautiful country; in fact I don’t think there is a place in Colorado that is not beautiful.
There was one dirt road we were on driving to Glenwood Springs that have the most beautiful Aspens, I just wanted to get out of the car and walk mile after mile and see the fantastic scenery on that road. It would be a perfect place for a poet to write an amazing poem about fall.
Also, on that same road we saw several small birds with long tail feathers that looked like a roadrunner. We also saw a large bird that looked the same as the smaller birds. They didn’t fly but would just run across the road. My wife found a picture of a roadrunner on her cell phone and it had the shape and looks of the birds we saw but the picture showed the roadrunner with various colors. The birds we saw were completely black.
We ended up in Glenwood Springs and took I-70 back to Denver, prettiest interstate I have ever driven. The next day, which was our last day in Colorado, we hooked back up with our friends and they took us to Mount Evan, I think, and we saw a lot more stunning scenery. In fact they showed us about as much exquisite scenery as we had seen all week. On that outing we saw a herd of Big Horned Sheep or Rams or whatever.
We had a late dinner at a nice and unusual Mexican Restaurant and then caught a red eye back to Charlotte. It was a great trip.
You should have stuck with the Great Sand Dunes. If you did not get to the visitor center you did not get close enough to see the enormity of the dunes. Once you walk out there you feel like you are on another world. Some of those dunes are 700 ft high, takes at least an hour walk up and if you go down the other side you may never be seen again. The Sand Dunes are one of my favorite Colorado spots.
Wow! Sounds like we didn't give them a chance. Now I feel disappointed in myself.
It certainly sounds like you managed to cram a lot into your 8 or 9 days. Don't fret about the stuff you didn't see. It wouldn't matter if you had 14 days - you still would come back with a list of places you wished you'd seen. That's the nature of the Rockies if you love mountains. I've spent about 9 days in Yellowstone on 6 separate trips this summer and I regret that I didn't get to explore everything in the park as thoroughly as I'd hoped. There's always something left to see on the next trip.
You mentioned getting out to Montana next year. If so, I advise going around the same time of year (mid to late September). It's a beautiful time of year as the aspens turn and the skies clear. There is always the possibility that a fall snowstorm might close a road or two for a day or so, but that is generally not the case. But after spending two August fire seasons in Montana, I can't recommend that month. The smoke and haze that covered much of the state this August would have ruined a lot of tourists' photos. Of course, June and July are great, but those are the most crowded months for tourists. At Glacier, they are mostly an inconvenience, but in Yellowstone, the crowds and the traffic have a really negative impact on the overall experience. If you are retired and not confined to the school calendar for your vacations, mid September is a great time to visit.
Boy, do I ever envy you living in Montana and being in a position to see so many of American's Wonders. We visited Yellowstone in early September in 2013 and that was a great time to visit Yellowstone. I can't get enough of Yellowstone, NatGeo had a four night special about Yellowstone a few weeks back and all that did was make me want to go back even more.
In 2016 when I visited Wyoming and Montana I was there from late June to mid July and the weather in both states was picture perfect summer weather. But, this time I want to go back to Yellowstone so I will probably go in early September.
BTW, we followed your recommendations along with our friends almost to a tee. Like I said earlier, I would have been gravely upset if we hadn't went to the Black Canyon.
