Day 5 - Salida, Colorado

Wooden bicycle in our motel lobby                  Salida, Colorado

   Last night we visited the Salida Hot Springs Aquatic Center for a soak in mineral pool.  (We'll spare you the picture of us in our bathing suits.)  Minerals in the health-giving water include Silica, Aluminum Iron Oxide, Sulphate, Calcium, Bicarbonate, Potassium, Chloride, and Sodium.  Sounds scientific but it was very relaxing and therapeutic for what ails you.

Hwy 50 between Gunnison and Montrose, Colorado


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Where are the Butlers?

   In 1889 Rudyard Kipling, the great English writer and poet, traveled through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River on the Denver and Rio Grande Railway. Of this trip he wrote, "We entered a gorge remote from the sun...where a rock-splintered river roared and howled ten feet below the track....There was a glory and a wonder and a mystery about that wild ride that I felt keenly." The Denver and Rio Grande Railway no longer runs through the Black Canyon (some of its track is now part of a trail down into the canyon) but the glory, wonder, and mystery Kipling felt can yet be experienced at the Black Canyon.

   The glory of the canyon becomes apparent as you cautiously approach the Chasm Overlook for your first look straight down at the river, or contemplate the geological beauty of the sheer cliff called the Painted Wall (over 2300 feet from top to bottom, the steepest cliff in Colorado), or watch the sun go down at Sunset Point. At each of these and other overlooks along the rim you cannot keep from being fearful, or feeling small. The Black Canyon is so overwhelmingly glorious that anyone who visits it leaves humbled.  

   The wonder of the canyon can best be seen by going into the gorge. During the summer you can hike down 232 steps then walk about a mile along the river to take a pontoon boat trip. On this tour we saw a beautiful waterfall, dark and rapid river water (from 200 to 300 feet deep in places), some eerie rock formations, green hillsides, trees growing at odd angles, nests of eagles, but mostly steep cliff walls. The Black Canyon assaults your perceptions and leaves you questioning what you saw. 

   The canyon is truly a place of mystery where puzzling things yet occur. In fact, we left the canyon thinking about something puzzling. There were thirty-two people on the boat. According to the park ranger who narrated the tour, there were supposed to be thirty-four. Before we left the dock, the ranger asked, "Has anyone seen or does anyone know the Butlers?" The Butlers never showed up and we left the canyon with this mystery unresolved - Where are the Butlers?  

   

Black Canyon of the Gunnison River

Waterfall in Black Canyon

Former Denver and Rio Grande Railroad bed which is now trail to steps

Leaving Black Canyon, step # 86 of 232

Painted Wall of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

       After leaving the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, we ate at a restaurant in Montrose, Colorado with an odd name - The Camp Robber. The name comes from the Canadian Grey Jay which is a bane to hikers and people on a picnic because its swoops and steals food from a table or out of someone's hand. Odd name but great award-winning food!