Montrose and Black Canyon of the Gunnison Colorado

Looking West from Dragon Point.  Painted Wall on the right is 2200' high!

An early start in Montrose saw us out the driveway at 6:30 heading for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, about a 30-minute run from Steve's house.  

Tom and Steve break from birding for a photo.

Looking for the peregrine nest and educating other visitors.

We hiked around through the campground area, several vista points and found birds and wildflowers, not to mention jaw dropping cliffs and canyons.

The Visitor Center viewpoint view

We’ve been to the Grand Canyon and it’s pretty impressive, but BC of the Gunnison is every bit as spectacular. The very deep and narrow canyons can give one that vertigo feeling as you’re standing at the edge.

 

We didn’t stop at all the vista viewpoints, but covered a couple very well.  The guys found some interesting birds and had fun in the process.  The ranger at the visitors’ center was thrilled at the numbers they’d found near her station.  

 

I participated in the early morning birding through the campground until I started to spot interesting wildflowers and cool old junipers. I grabbed my macro lens and ring light, since it was rather gloomy, and crawled under several bushes to get my shots.

Dwarf Waterleaf

Salsify

The labeling I’ve done of the flowers are what the ranger station had used on their display board, however most of them did not coincide with the reference books that Steve let me use. 

Lupine

Desert Paintbrush

  After completion of our circuit of Black Canyon, there just happened to be another birding hot spot on the way home.... Bostwick Park Road traverses along farm fields for several miles before dropping us right into Montrose.