From Glenwood Springs we made it to Montrose for a short respite from driving. We did a couple of nights at the Montrose Elk’s Lodge, then hit the KOA for another week. Our focus was on re-experiencing the area of Montrose for a possible landing site for us, but we did get to squeeze in some sights for fun.

We have toured the Black Canyon of the Gunnison Nat’l Park, it’s been about 7 years ago, but we wanted to do a re-visit. Since the KOA is only a few miles from the N.P., we left Woodrow Wilson to guard Rosie and drove on up the mountain. Most of the views were familiar to us, but it was still awe-inspiring to see the majestic mountains, canyons, and rock faces contrasted with the Gunnison River. It is not a large N.P., but the South rim (the side we were on) access was the closest for us. The North rim required another hour+ driving (one-way) to get there and we would have been looking at the same features, only from the opposite side.

After my previous bicycling run-in with the deadly chain link fence, it has become obvious that Murphy has sure been keeping a close eye on me here lately. During this stay I developed some severe tooth pain in my back molar. With the weekend approaching quickly, I made the command decision to try to get in to see a local dentist. I lucked out with the Montrose Family Dental office. A quick in-n-out and I was good to go, abscessed gum diagnosed and scrip in hand for the anti-biotics. (While I had to wait a day or two for the drugs to kick in, it was pretty convenient that I still had an ample supply of Vicodin & Percocet for the pain…)

Before lift-off we really wanted to go hike the Box Cañon Falls trail in Ouray. We had been waiting for a break in the rainy weather, and by-golly we got it the last weekend of our stay. It was a short half-hour drive to Ouray and the “trail head”, so we left Woody at home again. They charge a $5 per head fee to “hike” up and see the falls, but we quickly found out it was not really a hike. A very short trail took us to the bottom of the falls with a steel structure stairway. The falls are kind of obstructed from a full frontal view, mostly encased in rock face with just a portion visible from the viewing areas. And the whole area is pretty much a very large slot canyon. But it was still spectacular to see and very loud in that “echo”-friendly canyon. A steep side trail takes you up to a bridge above, crossing the canyon but unable to see the actual falls. It does give a view of Cañon Creek, the source for the falls. There are also some great overviews of the town of Ouray and surrounding mountains.

Well, I’m trying to keep my posts a little more up-to-date and short, so that catches us up for now. Our next stop is going to be Colorado City, near Pueblo, as we wind our way towards Texas. Until next post…