Friday, July 6, 2012
Cheri July-5-12
8:25 AM | 
Posted by
Sharp's Travels
We decided to go back to the Black Canyon since we got rained out yesterday.
We left about 10:30 am and rode through some rain before arriving around 11:30 am at the Visitors Center. There was an overlook there that we didn’t get to see due to the rain yesterday.
No matter which overlook we stopped at the views are awesome.
Some stops were a short walk from the parking lot. We’d stroll down the path and wander past the Utah Juniper Trees. The tree twists as it grows. They are an odd looking tree. The pink rocks along the path and at the overlooks were so pretty. Everything you looked at was a beautiful site to see.
We managed to get through all the overlooks and decided to go back down into the canyon to the Dam site. The road was paved all the way down, which was good, but it had a 15% steep grade for 5 miles to the bottom of the canyon. The road weaved back and forth as you drop into the canyon. It was quite a ride.
We were disappointed when we got to the bottom. The dam was all fenced in and you couldn’t get close enough to get any good pictures.
We did however; get to see the Gunnison Diversion Dam that was completed in 1909. It was one of the largest tunnel projects to be attempted at the time. It is eleven feet wide by twelve feet high stretching almost six miles through hard rock, clay, sand and shale. The construction itself was very treacherous work. The tunnel was steamy hot because of hot water seepages, and underground streams often flooded the tunnel. The tunnel diverts water from the Gunnison River for irrigation purposes to the surrounding farm lands.
It started to sprinkle while we were at the Dam. We put our rain jackets on and headed up out of the canyon. We were only 11 miles from Montrose, so decided to head there for dinner. We were lucky enough to arrive at Denny’s in Montrose just before the down pour.
Just as we were putting our order in, the electricity went off. Luckily it came right back on. We relaxed—had dinner and it was barely sprinkling when we left. We had to stop for gas and as we headed out, it began to rain again. It rained the rest of the way home (50 miles). We were wet & cold when we arrived.
Gay made us some cocoa to help warm us up. It is 69 degrees here and 94 degrees in Fond du Lac!
Our ride today was a total of 147 miles.
To see pictures of the day click on this link https://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on album: Black Canyon of Gunnison day two.
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