Needle Rock that goes Up, and Black Canyon that goes Down!

We are camping in Hotchkiss, Colorado, for six days. If you've never heard of this tiny town, it's because most tourists drive right through on their way to other points of interest. But we are using it as a launching point for road trips to several places. We're visiting two of those today. Our first stop is just 13 miles from our campground, and when we arrived, the sign said we are in the "Needle Rock Outstanding Natural Area."  Today we're calling it "the outstanding thing that goes up." Our first view of this monolith made it look very one-dimensional and narrow. (We're talking about the big rock, not the person in the picture below.)

But as we started the hike that circled it, we saw from another angle that it was actually separated into two monoliths.

Another half-mile down the trail gives us another angle, and we would never have recognized it as the same Needle Rock that we saw at the beginning of the hike.

We are getting higher as we go up the trail, and we continue to see the many faces of Needle Rock!

After one mile, we are at the top of the trail, seeing that the narrow needle is now bigger than we expected. To get some perspective on the size, you can barely see Mark, who scrambled up higher. He's hard to locate in this poorly lit side of the rock, but look for him left of center, standing in the brush in his light blue shirt.

The views from our perch near the top show the surrounding farm land, ringed with mountains. We were glad we started early this morning, because the temperature is already climbing up as we climbed down at 8 a.m.

This mule deer was looking for shade already this morning. She didn't offer to move out of that shade even though she was quite close to the road when we passed.

After that short detour, we headed through the town of Crawford. We had perfect timing, as an Amish woman had just set up for a bake sale on Main Street. She comes here every other Friday, so it was Mark's radar for sweets that brought us here on just the right day and time to buy a half-dozen fruit pies, pecan rolls, and a loaf of wheat bread. Now loaded with enough calories to hike further, we drove a few more miles to our real destination of the day--the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Today we're going to call it, "The outstanding thing that goes down." This deep canyon seems to appear out of nowhere in the middle of these dry desert plains.

It was carved by the Gunnison River, and we finally got close enough to the edge to be able to see that tiny river far below.

We have parked the car, and are taking a 3.2-mile hike on the North Vista Trail. Mark is hanging his legs off at the scenic view point of the trail--called Exclamation point! It must be named "exclamation point" because just like the punctuation mark, this view exudes  a "forceful or strong feeling."

That looks like a tiny creek so far below, but it is obviously a raging river that can cut through sheer rock.

Even though most of the rock is black here in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, we found an occasional anomaly. The difference was so striking that we had to take a picture.

Five years ago, we visited this canyon from the south. That's the more-visited rim, and it has a visitor center and large campground where we stayed.

This north rim is more remote and has less amenities. In fact, the road we traveled to the entrance is gravel, and the tiny ranger station was closed the day we visited. So we are on our own to explore this rim. Have you noticed that either Denisa or Mark is in each of the pictures today? Sometimes we are hard to find. It's like a version of "Where's Waldo?" renamed "Where's the Wanderer?"

After we finished our hot hike, we took the driving route with stops like this one looking out over "The Painted Wall." It's veins of pink pegmatite run in diagonal stripes, and this is one of the most-visited stops on either rim of the canyon.  

At this point the canyon is 2,250 feet deep. Just to put it in perspective, the Grand Canyon's average depth is 4,000 feet, but it is up to 18 miles wide. What makes the Black Canyon unique is that it is only 1,100 feet wide, so its walls are very steep.

There is no bridge over the canyon. So if we wanted to drive to the visitor center on the south rim, it would take 2-3 hours. That's a long drive considering that we can see it quite easily from here.

We also checked out the Chasm View nature trail, which had some good views over the canyon as well.

You won't find much shade here in this desert-scape. But the twisted junipers can make for an interesting place to sit and take a break.

We also stopped in at the balanced rock, barely hanging on to the side of the canyon. That's going to make a big splash in the Gunnison River when that tiny piece at the bottom lets loose!

From that top platform, Denisa is looking down at the vertical walls that take you over 2,000-feet to the bottom. It reminds her of hiking to the bottom when we were here five years ago. When we asked about that hike, the ranger took one look at this little gray-haired woman and told her there wasn't such a hike.

But we got the details when we heard the ranger describe the route to another, much younger group. Part of the instructions is that you must contact your next-of-kin before attempting that hike down. We did that, and then managed to slip and slide our way all the way down to the river at the bottom. Then for the hardest part of the hike, we had to claw our way back out. It was the most exhausting hike ever, and Denisa vowed that she would never do that again!


Since we're looking toward the south rim, Denisa can point to the route we took down on the north side--called the Genesis Trail.

There is a similar route here on the north rim, and the picture below shows the entry point down. You will be glad to know that Denisa kept her vow, and she did not hike to the bottom today! We talked to a group of young men that did that hike yesterday--as part of a bachelor party weekend. Their stories of their hike reminded us of how treacherous it was.

Denisa offered to wait around so Mark could make the hike today. He wouldn't have to contact his next-of-kin before hiking, because she would already know. Even though he was tempted, he knew it would be too long and too hot to leave someone waiting. So he will look at it with longing from afar until he can talk a more suitable hiking partner to go into the canyon with him next time.

This is our last picture of the canyon at the last viewpoint on this national park's last rim. Now we'll be returning to those flat plains that surround it, and hide this secret canyon until visitors get very close to the edge.

On our drive home this evening, we could see our first stop of the day in the distance. From here, we can see the sheer walls of Needle Rock from its other side.

That seemed like such a big rock this morning. But now when we look at the bigger picture from afar, we can see the mountains that tower above that little brown monolith. 

Today we have wandered to Needle Rock that goes straight up, and Black Canyon that goes straight down--and they're only 17 miles apart. What diverse wonders God has made that we get to wander!