Gunnison - Cortez Journey Day 10

The weather forecast was all bad for today in our travel area so we set off for the Black Canyon a little pessimistically.
The early part of the day we crossed the Plateau level. We are still over 6000 feet but there is no hint that it is not sea level. Stopping to take pictures we realise what “Sage Brush” is (the name of the peanut place at Grand Lake), a plant a bit like a cross between moorland heather and lavender, it give the hillsides it grows on a silvery colour and a strong pleasant smell of sage.
We travel by lakes and sand coloured stone and it is apparent that the features becoming more diverse. The Dillon Pinnacles near one of the lakes are spikes of soft rock which have formed due to a hard cap protection from the erosion.
We appear to be approaching western plains as we near Montrose and think that the mountains are done with. To the north there are odd pale coloured hills and it is up one of these we follow the sign to the Black Canyon; we rapidly climb 2000 ft and are suddenly in a hidden flat plain of green grass, we cross this and carry on a little higher. At the top of the hills, the earth is cracked open by a narrow canyon extending 2000 ft downward and a quarter of a mile wide. We are on the south rim looking across to sheer rocks with a vertical strata giving an interesting appearance and dropping away to a roaring river down in the base of the canyon. We drove to several view points along the length of the canyon, all of which are spectacular. It is known as the Black Canyon because at some times the depths are in shadow; as this was midday, the sun was high so it wasn’t black but it was fantastic.
We head off down and into the town of Montrose where we call in large supermarket and buy salad and fruit bowls from the deli as well as yoghurt and lemon meringue pie – the former because we think it may help our digestion which continues dodgy sitting in the car all day – the latter because we couldn’t resist.
The rain starts properly, we pull over and stop for lunch near a visitor centre surrounded by tee pees manufactured by a local company.
After lunch we continue the drive which turns out to be back into high mountains with snow but all in cloud – very disappointing. I’d also filled the tank thinking we were heading for the plains – big mistake, that fuel is heavy.
Heavy rain and very low cloud. Decided to pull over for 20 minutes and study route in the hope the cloud would lift. Decided to abandon hope of getting to Mesa Verde and maybe go for Monticello and get to the Arches early tomorrow.
We were following a route which would clearly have been a stunning mountain scenery drive but apart from the lower forested hills and the colours and features of rocks we saw only occasional hints of the higher tops which looked as if they were the young jagged mountains I had been looking forward to seeing in the Rockies.
Suddenly, we were in torrential storm rains which were dragging rocks and red soil down onto the road. Wide red rivers rushed across the road and at points splashes covered us in red water. The rain was so heavy though that the jeep was washed off again by the time the rains ceased. This was also accompanied by the occasional flash of lightening for good measure.
Eventually, the rain subsided though the low cloud remained. We were considering where we should stop for the night as time had gone by and not only would it be late if we carried on to Monticello but we were also hearing on the radio that there was some fair going on there and we decided it would be difficult to get accommodation. We settled for heading into Cortez. Holiday Inn Express could only offer a suite and we picked up a room at Comfort Inn next door for $122 before tax. In the East we were managing $99 before tax but it seems to be going up.
Once checked in, with the skies cleared we decided to make a bid for Mesa Verde which was about 10 miles away. We arrived at the National park entrance about 7 and realised that inside the park we needed to drive 26 miles both ways and that the viewing areas closed at sunset (about 8:15). The road wound up about 1.5k feet with the most stunning views of the plains below and then rolled around the top of the hill. We chose one loop road as being what we may manage and kept jumping out to see rather anticlimactic pits of room layout which may have been more interesting at a different time then on the later viewpoints we began to see the cliff dwellings which I would happily have studied more. (I’ll leave the reader to look up the area rather than describe hear).
We are very high now and the sun is setting to one side and a storm brewing the other. The low sun hitting the pale sandy rocks and the stunning sunset combined with black skies and forks of lightening and there in between a gentle ghostly rainbow.
The upper road was close to time to closing and we set off on the 26 mile return to the gate. There had been a forest fire some years back and an area of skeletons of trees was silhouetted against the coloured sunset. A little further down we could see a storm cloud over the town with the rain pouring below it.
Picked up a Dominoes pizza on the way back to the room and then started writing this – far too late. Need to get to bed soon because the forecast for the next 3 days is Thunder storms and rain after midday so we need to set out promptly.

Statistics: Miles today: 285 miles; Miles so far: 3,086; Fuel added so far: 153 gals; States: Colorado; Time Zone: Mountain (UK -7)