Gunnison, Colorado

The City of Gunnison is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Gunnison County, Colorado. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,854. Interestingly it has a great museum. It took us two days to see it all!

Pioneer Museum

We stayed about 10 miles away in an RPI (Resorts Park International) park. The RPI parks normally just costs us $10.00 a night so they are a bargain. The park we stayed at is called Blue Mesa RV Ranch.

Blue Mesa RV Ranch

The campsites are rustic and have the native brush and plants around them. Ours is the RV with the awning out. Although you can't tell in this photo we did not have neighbors on either side of us so we had plenty of space.

Our Blue Mesa Campsite

We were assigned a space with our door and window facing towards the lake. Here is our view we saw out the window.

View of Blue Mesa Reservoir

It was hot while we were here so everyday we walked down to the pool. The water was warm and very enjoyable. Even went into the hot tub a few times.

Swimming Pool

Blue Mesa Reservoir is the largest body of water entirely in Colorado. It surprised us that even on the weekend there was never more then 2 or 3 boats in view at any one time. Can you imagine in California how many there would be??

Blue Mesa Reservoir

One of the main reasons we came to Gunnison is to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The Gunnison is referring to the Gunnison River not the city of Gunnison.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is a National Park located in western Colorado. The south rim entrance is located 15 miles east of Montrose. The park contains 12 miles of the 48-mile long canyon of the Gunnison River. The national park itself contains the deepest and most dramatic section of the canyon. 

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

The canyon's name owes itself to the fact that parts of the gorge only receive 33 minutes of sunlight a day. Several canyons of the American West are longer and some are deeper, but none combines the depth, sheerness, narrowness, darkness, and dread of the Black Canyon.

The River Runs Through

There are a lot of turn outs from the road that you can just stop and take pictures. Also there are places that you can hike several hundred yards to a mile to get to viewpoints. This picture shows the visitor center. You can take photos from the visitor center or continue down the trail and get better shots. We took a picture of the center as we were heading back.

Visitor Center

We took this picture from the Visitor Center Trail. Quite impressive. I can understand why they call this the Colorado Grand Canyon!

Visitor Center Trail

This is called Painted Wall on the north side of the canyon. It is the tallest sheer cliff in Colorado at 2,250 feet. Lighter-colored pegmatite dikes are clearly visible.

Painted Wall

In 1909 a tunnel was built through the mountain to divert water to Montrose. Because workers needed to get to the tunnel to build it as well as ongoing maintenance a road was built.

East Portal Road 16%

The road is extremely steep (16% grades) with hairpin curves. Vehicles with an overall length greater than 22 feet are prohibited on the East Portal Road. My truck is about 22 feet +/-. It is also 8'1" wide and weighs about 8600 lbs. empty. I was advised (not mandated) not to take it down to the river by the ranger.

The Beast!

The ranger was concerned about braking down the 16% grade. What he did not know is how awesome the exhaust brake is on the new RAM trucks! I stuck the truck in Tow/Haul mode and also put on maximum Exhaust Brake. In the 5 miles of the downhill I touched my foot brake only 3 times! Pretty easy downgrade!

We got close to the bottom and saw the Crystal Dam overflowing. There is a lot of water in Colorado. To bad they can't ship it to drought stricken California!

Crystal Dam

Here is the Gunnison River. It was warm down here so we walked around and checked it out a little and then went back to the top. 

Gunnison River

That's it for today....

Please remember to pray for Avery Huffman!

God Bless and thanks for reading..

Brian and Patty

Leadville, Colorado

First let me tell you that we are about two months behind on our blog. The dates that are showing up are not actually correct. Sorry about that. We went for awhile without good fast Internet which kept us from being able to update.
_________________________________________________________________________

We are heading to Leadville, Colorado. Leadville is the highest incorporated municipality in the USA at 10,200 feet above sea level! To put that in perspective, Denver is called the mile high city, this is almost two miles high!!!!!

We went through the Eisenhower tunnel on the I70. This tunnel is 1.693 miles long! It is the second time we have gone through this tunnel, but the first time with our 5th wheel.

Eisenhower Tunnel

The first time was when we picked up our 5th wheel on our way to Michigan in 2011. That was also in June and also had snow on the ground.

Inside the Tunnel

We stayed at the Leadville RV Park. It was a Passport America park so we got in for 1/2 price. That is always nice. This park only lets you stay for a few days which worked for us. After meeting the owner he said next time he would waive the rule if I come back. That was nice of him.

Leadville RV Park

Our great friends Bill and Jenn Gehr told of of a place to eat here called Quincy's Steak house.

Quincy's Steakhouse

On Sunday through Thursday they serve one thing, and one thing only, Filet Minion! Want some Chicken, too bad! Want some Prime Rib, too bad! Want some Bacon wrapped Filet Minion? This is the place for you!!! Comes with diner salad, baked potato, veggie and bread. How much you ask? 

$9.95!

It's a bargain! And it awesome! In fact it's so good we ate here twice in the four days we were here!

Filet Minion

Friday and Saturday they also serve Prime Rib and Rib Eye Steak. But that's it. The Hostess warns you before they sit you that if you don't want beef this is not the place for you. LOL. My kind of place!

We were told be should go the Independence Pass to Aspen, Co. It is mostly a beautiful road with two horrible tight spots that two mini-cars can't pass through! 

This is the continental divide at the summit. Notice the elevation is 12,095 feet!

Continental Divide

We saw forests and snow along the road!

Snow Next to Road

Even waterfalls!

Waterfall

The road was quite curvey. With lots of hairpin turns!

Lots of Hairpin turns

And there were two spots in particular that were very narrow!

Narrow road

My truck is not 8' 1" wide. If you notice this rock on the right is sticking out over the road. At this point we were already here a car comes rushing on us from the other side. We tried to get him to stop since we were already here. He said "We can both make it". I said, well I'm not getting closer to the rocks, as I was already about 2" away from them. If you want to go off the cliff or scrape the guard rail, as long as you don't touch my truck it's up to you, but I'm not moving!!!  You should back out of my way. Somehow he got by me, and I don't think he scraped his car on the guardrail.

This is our picture above. Obviously we didn't take any pictures while this was happening. Also immediately a girl tried to do the same thing, but Patty stuck her hand out the sun roof and got her to back up.

The following picture I found on the Internet. It shows how really tight it really is for even small cars! Can you imagine my 8'1" wide truck and someone squirting by me? I guess you truly can't fix STOOOPID!

Crazy tight road!

We made it to Aspen. Here is a pic Patty took of the Ski Lifts. We did go into a grocery store and drove around town, but we really weren't too impressed with Aspen. Just a bunch of overpriced stores. 

Aspen Ski Lifts

We headed back on the Pass. Fortunately we didn't run across anybody on the tight spots this time. We stopped at Twin lakes on the way back. Took a panoramic of the lake and I thought the picture came out nice.

Twin Lakes Pano

That's it for Leadville. Next stop is Gunnison, Co.

Please pray for Avery Huffman!

Love you,

Brian and Patty

Mount Rushmore Lighting Ceremony!

We went back to Mount Rushmore on Monday. The monument was clear with no fog or clouds obscuring it from view! Here we are at avenue of the flags. The Avenue of Flags was initially established as part of the celebration of America’s Bicentennial at the request of a visitor. The 56 flags represent the 50 states, one district, three territories, and two commonwealths of the United States of America.

Avenue of the Flags

Here is a close up of the monument. Notice the attention to detail. Even Teddy Roosevelt's wire rim glasses are present,

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln

One of the reasons we came back today was to attend the nightly lighting ceremony. It is a very patriotic ceremony that will make you feel good about this wonderful country! While we were waiting several people starting laughing and pointing at George Washingtons head.

There were some mountain goats on top of George!!

Mountain Goats on top of George!

They moved on top of Jefferson and then on top of Roosevelt. It was a good distraction as we waited for the ceremony to start!

Promptly at 9:00 PM the ceremony begins. A US Ranger comes on the stage on gives a brief description of Mount Rushmore. Then a 20 minute video from the National Geographic Channel is run. 

Lighting Ceremony

After the video is run the ranger invites all active military and all individuals that have ever served in the military on to the stage for the flag lowering ceremony. After the flag is lowered one by one each individual says his/her name and what branch they served in.

Flag lowering and Folding

At this point extreme spotlights are pointed at the monument!

Lighting Mount Rushmore

If this does not choke you up and put a tear in your eye, you are not a true American!!! God Bless America!!! God Bless the U.S.A.!!!!!

Mount Rushmore!

On our way out I took another picture of the lit Mount Rushmore from the Avenue of the Flags.

Avenue of The Flags

If you get to Mount Rushmore we would really recommend the lighting ceremony. The parking pass is good for the entire year so go back as often as you want for free!

As you nay know by now one of our favorite things to see is waterfalls. We found there was a pretty good falls in Spearfish Canyon not to far from Rapid City. In addition the drive through Spearfish Canyon was pretty spectacular too! The falls are called Roughlock Falls.

Roughlock Falls

You don't even have to walk too far to get to them. The top is pretty near the road.

Top of Roughlock Falls

Most people seemed to stop here and not hike to the bottom. Although it was a fairly steep descent to the bottom is still was a good trail and certainly moderate. We're not going to let that stop us! LOL

You can see the tall fall in the back of this picture.

Roughlock Falls from the Bottom

Somebody offered to take this picture of us. One of the rare times we are not taking a selfie! 

Brian and Patty at the Falls

Well this wraps up our two week stay in our new domicile of South  Dakota. We are heading home via Colorado. You will not want to miss that!

Please continue to pray for Avery Huffman!!!

Love you all,

Brian and Patty

Jewel Cave, South Dakota

20 or so years ago when we last were at Mount Rushmore we visited Jewel Cave with the kids, and Barry and Susie Miller. Patty had done the spelunking tour but not the regular cave tour that the rest of us had done. This time we decided to do the longer Scenic Tour.

In this picture you can see the extensive map system that is the Jewel Cave system. It is actually larger then this because it is still being discovered.

Jewel Cave Maps

The Scenic Tour is the most popular tour of Jewel Cave.

Scenic Tour

The Scenic Tour route provides an opportunity to visit various cave chambers and passages decorated with calcite crystals and other speleothems. This tour is considered a modern day walking tour along a paved trail with electric lighting. The tour enters and leaves the cave by elevator in the Visitor Center. The Scenic Tour is moderately strenuous and lasts 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Elevators to Cave

The tour route involves walking up and down 723 stair steps along a 1/2 mile loop, (equivalent to 40 flights of stairs). During the Scenic Tour, you see two types of calcite crystals known as nailhead spar and dogtooth spar, which are the "jewels" of Jewel Cave. In addition, you can view boxwork, cave popcorn, flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and a long ribbon drapery called the cave bacon.

Cave Bacon

Here you can see the big room with some of the stairways that need to be tranversed.

Big Room

Part of the Scenic Tour.

Jewel Cave

Tour continues. Although the cave stays at 49 degrees year round with the up and down stairs (723 stairs) it was still a workout!

Green tints....

Here is a sample of cave popcorn.

Jewel Popcorn

Here are some samples of Cave Drapery.

Cave Drapery

Jewel cave is properly named as it truly is a jewel!

After we finished our tour we decided to head to Mount Rushmore Monument. The story of Mount Rushmore is really interesting.

South Dakota historian Doane Robinson is credited with conceiving the idea of carving the likenesses of famous people into the Black Hills region of South Dakota in order to promote tourism in the region. Robinson's initial idea was to sculpt the Needles; however, Gutzon Borglum rejected the Needles site because of the poor quality of the granite and strong opposition from Native American groups. 

The Needles

They settled on the Mount Rushmore location, which also has the advantage of facing southeast for maximum sun exposure. Robinson wanted it to feature western heroes like Lewis and Clark, Red Cloud, and Buffalo Bill Cody, but Borglum decided the sculpture should have a more national focus and chose the four presidents whose likenesses would be carved into the mountain. After securing federal funding through the enthusiastic sponsorship of "Mount Rushmore's great political patron", U.S. Senator Peter Norbeck, construction on the memorial began in 1927, and the presidents' faces were completed between 1934 and 1939. Upon Gutzon Borglum's death in March 1941, his son Lincoln Borglum took over construction. Although the initial concept called for each president to be depicted from head to waist, lack of funding forced construction to end in late October 1941.

Unfortunately on this day low clouds started coming in on the monument.

Mount Rushmore

Within just a few minutes you could barely see the presidents.

The Presidents are Missing!

Two minutes later they were totally gone! LOL.

We decided it would be better to come back another day. Fortunately the monument is free but it does cost to park. The parking fee is good for the rest of the year so it will not cost us to come back. We will come back and view the evening lighting ceremony!

That's it for today...

Keep praying for Avery Huffman!  God can deliver her from this!

God Bless you,
Brian and Patty