There are 2 roads in this park, one that circles the rim, and then one that goes to the bottom of the canyon. We decided to take the rim road first, which is a 7 mile road with about 12 stops on the way where you get out of the car and walk on trails to see the actual canyons. As you drive along, you wouldn't even know that any canyons existed. This is basically what you see as you are driving.
And then you get to the 1st overlook, get out of the car, walk anywhere from 100-300 yards, and you see something like this.
This is a stitched picture of 4 different photos...click on it and you will see the South Rim of the canyon on the right and the North Rim on the left.
We took Fluffy with us again...she had to be carried a lot because of both the heat and the altitude.
Cathy looks a lot more secure here than I do, huh?!
This talks about the people 1st exploring these canyons.
Here is another stitch photo.
And then Cathy and I having a little picnic at the next to last overlook. Wish you could join us Hallie! (She loves picnics.)
I took these clips, especially for Ellen and Barb, who were the 2 who commented on our last riding venture.
These pictures came out larger than normal, but I posted them anyway so you could see what we were seeing at the bottom. Look at my car in relation to the mountains. 
And then Cathy and I having a little picnic at the next to last overlook. Wish you could join us Hallie! (She loves picnics.)
This is called "High Point" overlook...speaks for itself, I guess, but just in case you want a little more meat, this overlook is at 8300 ft, while the valley below is almost 2800 ft down. It is unfortunate that pictures really do it no justice.
After touring the rim, we headed down to the East Portal River Access road, which as you can see here you are warned about before you start. This is a 5 mile, twisting road to the bottom of the canyon. When we were coming down the mountain to Ouray this past week, when our RV was smoking, that was a 7% grade...this road is a 16% grade...so even steeper, but at least we were in the car and not the RV.
I took these clips, especially for Ellen and Barb, who were the 2 who commented on our last riding venture.
So we finally got to the bottom, and finally saw some deer in Colorado! Being in a national park, I would think they weren't as afraid of us as they would normally be, but they were definitely careful.
Back around 1900 or so, both a dam and a tunnel were built here, for power and for diverting water to the surrounding towns.
These pictures came out larger than normal, but I posted them anyway so you could see what we were seeing at the bottom. Look at my car in relation to the mountains.
That is the dam on the left, and the tunnel is on the right. The tunnel diverts water to the surrounding towns, and because of both the dam and the tunnel very little future erosion will happen in the canyon...not necessarily a good thing I guess.
This is a picture as we are leaving the canyons.
And as we are driving home...I wish we could have a caravan of people travelling with us...it is a shame that this cannot be shared on a daily basis!
Fluffy! Glad to be going home!
As I said when talking to you, how many times are you going to go down this mountains until you learn what goes up must come down.
ReplyDeleteI know I would be still at the top of the mountain.haha.
Doing this in a car was a far cry from the experience of doing it in an RV.
ReplyDeleteWhat was funny about those videos were your comments. The third one it sounded as if your car was a golf cart headed down from the 10th hole at Lackland.
ReplyDeleteHow do you stitch those photos together? Software that came with your camera?
Wish I could see all that stuff.
Yes Barb, it came with th ecamera..I love it, it really helps in letting people see close to what we can see, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteI, too, loved the commentary during the videos. My favorite, however, was the first. "little bumpy, little bumpy, yes it is"
ReplyDeleteListening to you as you were riding down make me woozy. I know I wouldn't like it. It scared me just watching and listening to the video. No fun there.
ReplyDeleteIt was fun, Marie...I guess after going over the mountains this was a breeze in comparison.
ReplyDeleteAnd Julie, I am glad to see you have returned to the blog...I missed your commentary!
ReplyDeleteHow fast were you going when you were coming down,it looks pretty fast.
ReplyDelete