Colorado - Curecanti National Recreation Area

After a night's rest at the hotel, we got up bright and early to explore. Our map showed a site that didn't seem too far away so we took off .  We drove down the highway to the county road we were to turn on.  We are used to Texas county roads I guess, because we were expecting at least a blacktop road, but what we turned onto was a dirt path!  Wouldn't be too bad - a little rough for the Santa Fe, but doable if it hadn't been raining.  It was pretty much a mud pit.  We drove a bit and it just kept getting worse and worse.  We came to a place in the road where there was a big mud hole, we were debating if I should get out and see how deep it was when we heard a rumble.  Pepaw looked down the road and here came a HUGE (well it looked huge to me) road grader! Now we had no option BUT to turn around!  We were on a little dirt track road on the side of a mountain with a huge drop-off on my side and no where to go on the other side and Pepaw had to do a 3 point turn so we could get back to the highway...EEEEEK!  I kept saying under my breath, don't back up too far, don't back up too far...it was REALLY scary...but of course Pepaw is an amazing driver and made the turn-around look easy.  We headed back to Gunnison and stopped and the Curencanti National Recreation Area right along the highway to get a few shots.  At least the day wasn't a total loss! 

We just pulled off the highway into a small "observation turn out" parking lot close to the river that ran alongside the highway. First I noticed the trees were a little more yellow than they were the day before.

See how yellow they are near the river?

A look at the cliffs beyond the river.

Next we drove a little further and found a turn out where you could pull all the way down and launch a boat, so we walked around there for a bit.

These chained together logs caught my eye.

Of course I can't resist flowers in bloom!

Here is the road to the lake and boat launch area.

We climbed back into the car and drove closer to town where there was another pull out area where you could park and walk around a little so we stopped to see what we might see as we walked the paths.

A little yellow peeking through the trees.

Fishermen!

The River

The drive to the parking area, LOVED the wooden fence.

I climbed up on a little hill for a different perspective.

Just around the corner I saw this... The trees are beginning to turn!

As you may be able to tell, the sky was getting darker and darker, so we headed back to town hoping the rain would pass and we could get back out there later for more pictures.