Black Canyon of the Gunnison, North Rim

Colorado Travelog #31
Crawford, CO - Thursday, 7 Jul 2022, 6pm

Like the much more famous Grand Canyon in the US, Black Canyon of the Gunnison has both a South Rim and a North Rim. And in both parks it takes hours to drive around from one to the other. The normally 2½ hour drive here was made longer by road construction, which cost us at least 30 minutes in delays, plus our choice to stop and hike a bit at Curecanti National Recreation Area. As such we didn't begin the trail to Exclamation Point on the north rim until about 4:15pm, over an hour later than we wanted. The days are long; but would there still be enough light in the canyon by the time we got to Exclamation Point to make the views worthy of their name?

We set out from the ranger station (already closed for the day) on a 3 mile round-trip trek. The route starts at 7,700' elevation, dips a bit from there, then climbs gently to back up to Exclamation Point. We blasted through the trail, making barely any stops. The elevation seemed not to faze us. ...Which wasn't entirely surprising, as we've now had several days and nights at 5,000' ~ 7,000' to help acclimate. Even so, our pace was surprisingly fast. "I'm being powered by spite and frustration," Hawk quipped. I agreed. This may be the first time we've rage-hiked a trail.

In less than 45 minutes we reached a small wooden sign marking a little turnoff from the main trail. Someone had scratched a punctuation into. It read, appropriately, "EXCLAMATION POINT!"



Exclamation Point is high on the cliffs atop the canyon where the Gunnison River, roughly 2,000' below, makes a sharp turn. You can look downstream, as in the photo above... or see the whole thing as in the photo below.



Would the views have been better if we'd gotten here an hour earlier, when there was more light reaching down into the canyon? Yes. Was it still absolutely worth it coming here now? Also yes.

Part of what was cool about being out here on the remote north rim was that we had the place largely to ourselves. I think we passed all of 3 hikers the whole time. And 2 were leaving as we were starting; after that we saw only 1 other person.

We're not totally disconnected from other people, though, We can see them across the canyon on the south rim! We see cars moving along the park road over there, and sometimes can barely make out the shapes of people (especially if they're wearing bright colors) at the vista points on the edge of the cliff.

Tom Stienstra, an outdoors writer we've followed for years, notes that 95% of park visitors visit only the same, easy parts of the park. As he'd guide people to some of the lesser visited areas he'd quip, "Welcome to the 5% Club." Earlier today we were over on the south rim with everyone else; but by being here now we're in the 5%.



We stayed at Exclamation Point for a while before turning back. On the hike back we once again set a swift pace. This time we weren't worried so much about daylight as what time we'd get back to the car to complete our drive on to Glenwood Springs, hours away. I did stop for a few pictures, though, as we hiked back along the canyon rim.

These are spots where, on the hike in, I said to myself, "Yeah, I'll stop and photograph that on the way out." The photo above shows a view down a side canyon. The spot of blue you see at the deepest part is the Gunnison River. Again, the canyon wall behind it is roughly 2,000' tall.



Here's another view looking downriver in the canyon. The cliff on the right is Painted Wall, which we saw from the opposite side of the canyon on one of the short hikes we did along the South Rim earlier today. It towers over 2,200' above the river. Where was it 30 minutes earlier when we were at Exclamation Point? ...It was under our feet.

In beauty I walk.

2.5 Hours to Glenwood Springs, Longer with Waterfalls

Colorado Travelog #32
Hays Creek Falls, CO - Thursday, 7 Jul 2022, 8pm

We left the north rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison after finishing up our hike to Exclamation Point and put the pedal to the metal. It was already a full day; yet we still had a few hours of driving to get to Glenwood Springs, our stop for the night. We wanted to be able to eat dinner at a reasonable hour and get to bed not too late— as we have another full day tomorrow, starting with a hiking reservation for Hanging Lake at 8:30am.

Driving from the remote north rim of Black Canyon to Glenwood Springs took us through a remote area of Colorado. In the valleys and mesas out here are a handful of small towns, all rural agricultural and mining towns. We looked for eats to see if we could at least have dinner before 10pm... but one Crawford had basically no restaurants, Hotchkiss had a few that were mostly closed, and Paonia was mostly wineries (that were also closed). I ate a protein bar to stave off hunger. It was my third bar of the day; basically the only food I've eaten!

We pressed on through the valleys and up over a high pass, aiming to reach Glenwood Springs as early as possible. It seemed we'd make it before 9— early enough still to get dinner and early enough to settle down for the night afterward at a reasonable hour. We were making good time as we climbed over the McClure Pass at 9,000'... then after dropping back down the other side we saw something that stopped us in our tracks. A waterfall. 😂

Hays Creek Falls is one we've actually been to before. I thought the stretch of road looked familiar when we passed the junction with State Route 3. Spotting these falls while zooming past at 55mph confirmed it. We visited these falls (briefly) when we were driving in the opposite direction to the almost-ghost town of Crystal, CO on a trip 4 years ago.

Of course, we didn't just blast past the falls at 55mph. I hit the brakes, pulled off on a wide spot in the road, made a quick U-turn, and drove back to the small parking pull-out in front of the falls.



From the road you can partly see the falls; that's how I knew where we were & that it was worth stopping. From the small parking area a walk of just a few tens of meters brings you up to the rock apron at the base of the falls where I snapped the photo above.

The entire stop took only about 10 minutes. Thus it wasn't really a setback in our timing to get to Glenwood Springs. But even if it had taken 30 minutes it would've been worth it. I guess I could always have a fourth protein bar for dinner if need be. 🤢

Dinner & an Evening in Glenwood Springs. And a New Suitcase!

Colorado Travelog #33
Glenwood Springs, CO - Thursday, 7 Jul 2022, 11pm

We're now settled in Glenwood Springs for the evening. It feels weird to be here again, as we left here 4 days ago. (I know it seems like forever ago... it was 30 blogs ago!) We're even back at the same hotel, in a room that looks exactly the same. (The views out the windows are different; we're on the opposite side of the building this time.)

It wasn't our plan to double back to Glenwood Springs, at least not originally. It came about when we called an audible and re-planned the second half of this trip two nights ago. But now we're here for two (more) nights. Tomorrow we'll hike Hanging Lake and Saturday we'll drive to Aspen to hike Maroon Lake. We could've stayed a night in Aspen instead but it's literally twice as expensive as here, an hour away. We'll drive an hour to save hundreds of dollars.

Speaking of driving, we got into town late-ish this evening. It was barely 9pm, but it felt later. We'd driven 220 miles in addition to hike several miles in several locations. It was a full day. All we needed was dinner. Well, and a room for the night. But we went to dinner before checking in. We picked an Italian restaurant downtown. Hawk crushed a bowl of pasta and I demolished half a pizza. The other half's now in our refrigerator to be my breakfast. Mmm, cold pizza, the breakfast of champions!

As we left the restaurant we realized we had just 10 minutes or so until stores closed for the evening at 10pm. I wanted to buy some beer... and Hawk wanted to pick up our new suitcase. Yes, if you remember from when we left here 4 days ago, we threw an old, broken suitcase in the trash bin. In the time since then we've done some shopping online. The best deal we found was for a suitcase at Target, with in-store pickup available. There's a target a few blocks from our hotel, so we ordered it from that store's inventory. Thus on the drive to the hotel this evening I dropped Hawk at Target and continued to the liquor store. We met back up at the truck, her with suitcase in hand, and me with a 6-pack of beer. That seems so... appropriate for pickup truck drivers.