West - Day Four - June 26, 2005

It was a glorious morning in Moab so I couldn't resist driving up to Arches NP. I had wanted to drive out to the end of the park drive on my previous trip but wasn't able to so took advantage of being there this time. I began a brief hike out at the end of the drive to Tunnel Arch but couldn't resist going farther....

...to Landscape Arch. Spectacular views. However, as a result, I didn't really hit the road until almost 1 pm.

The next stop was Colorado National Monument, a gorgeous view driving along the plateau bery high up with thunderstorms sparking all around.

Back on Route 50, I then headed to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, an amazingly deep canyon resulting from uplift and erosion of volcanic ash way back when. The sound of the raging river at the bottom was louder than one would expect. Who knew this was there. At this point, it was 5 pm and I had planned to reach Colorado Springs by the end of the day. Given that it was 5 hours away, I changed my plans and drove to Salida (2 hours away) where I stayed for the night.

Drove a total of 375 miles today including going up over the Continental Divide at 11, 312 feet.