My Colorado Travelings

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park & San Juan 14ers

In July 2010, I was able to go to Colorado again with a friend. The plan was to first hit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and spend some time there to acclimatize. From there we planned on climbing Uncompahgre Peak and some of the other 14ers around it in the San Juan Range.

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We went to a ranger talk the first night there. It was about astronomy. The ranger made us all "Dark Rangers" of the National Park Service.
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The next day we got a permit to hike the Gunnison Route. It was one of several routes (not trails) to the bottom of the canyon.

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The Gunnison Route is one of the milder and shorter routes to the bottom. The chain was in place to assist hikers.

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At the bottom of the canyon.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

More views of the park.









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The next day we went to some BLM land just outside of the park and hiked the Chukar Trail to the river.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

The views along the Chukar Trail.









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An outfitting company had a mule train bringing down rafts and supplies to the river.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

At the river.











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The views heading back to the national park.

 

[roverrocks]

Very nice of the Black Canyon/Gunnison Gorge area. Just a few miles from me.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

We went to some of the overlooks along the canyon on our last night. This was the view from Sunset Point.



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We moved on to Uncompahgre Peak. We camped on the road to the Nellie Creek Trailhead.

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The Ute Ulay Mine was right there.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

More of the mine...

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[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

We took the hike to Uncompahgre.

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Approaching the mountain.





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Getting close to the top.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2019-

On the summit of Uncompahgre Peak!

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[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

And then, of course, we headed back down.

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[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

From there, we moved on to American Basin. Our next 14er attempt was to be Handies Peak.

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The views near the trailhead.



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Heading up the trail.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

Almost to the summit.

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On top of Handies!

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

We remained at our camp at American Basin and went on to try Redcloud and Sunshine. If you're not familiar with them, they are connected by a saddle.

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We got a really early pre-dawn start so we would already be on the way back down by noon.
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Gaining elevation on Redcloud.





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On the summit!

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2010-

We headed to Sunshine...



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Looking up at it's summit.

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The view from the top.





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We headed back down.







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That's the details of that trip. We headed back home after that. It was a good time and my first visit to the San Juans. I had really wanted to climb Uncompahgre. I enjoyed the July views of the snow still on the 14ers.

 

[TripLeader]

Very nice of the Black Canyon/Gunnison Gorge area. Just a few miles from me.

Thanks. I wish I lived in Colorado...