Cayton Campground

We continued making our way to the Grand Canyon. On the way we came upon Ridgway State Park. The water looked tempting and there was a swim beach.

But the water was ice cold so we only got in up to our ankles. In addition the water looked pretty dirty so we were happy to not get in.

We had some pretty scenic driving.

Pretty soon we saw snow on the peaks as we headed up, up, up.

I had found a campground on-line that I liked the sound of and hoped to get a site.


We arrived and they had one site available so we lucked out again. It was a beautiful one, surrounded by tall trees.

Many sites were on the river but ours was across the campground road. Which was OK as rivers can be quite noisy.



The dogs wanted to investigate.



Sunshine takes a look.

But says, no thanks.

Even Blossom says it is too rough for her.

Back to the campground road.

Max takes Blossom for a walk.

Sunshine likes to explore the campground roads also.

A muskrat lives under the rock that is near the campground host and the placard commemorating the campground. He comes out and chirps whenever a dog walks by.

As usual we asked about any hiking trails from the campground. So we started up to take advantage of what was available.

The hike was on a road that went, up, up, up.

We saw many pretty vistas.

Some times we were in an open field.

And then it was back into the trees.

We got closer and closer to the sun and sky.

Pretty soon the Sound of Music tune "Climb Every Mountain" seems to be appropriate.



After we hit private property we came back down to the campground.


Again, all too soon it was time to leave this lovely spot.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Our second stop on the way to the Grand Canyon was the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. On the way we saw some beautiful countryside.

We stopped to take some pics at a scenic overlook.

The view from the overlook.

Upon arriving at Black Canyon of the Gunnison we took the dogs for a walk on the 2 mile rim trail.

The canyon was very impressive.





Max and Blossom pose on a rocky outcrop.



Lots of scenic vistas.




The various rock configurations and types were interesting.

We thought that we could only walk the dogs on the rim trail but it turns out they were allowed on all the overlook trials. There were so many that we had to split them into two days.

You can see the river below.

The rocks had some interesting veining.



In the distance off one trail their appeared to be sand dunes.

Sunshine contemplates the meaning of life.

The valley is vast.

You can barely see the river below.

At sunset we catch some good light and colors. Max tries to get the dogs to pose.

Sunshine is ready to move on.

He gives up and takes some pics.

Blossom says 'I'm posing now.'

Blossom prefers sniffs to scenic vistas.

Every time we looked out our camper windows we were surrounded by deer. There were two little baby ones that I didn't get pics of that like to eat the leaves around us. We stayed at the South Rim campground. The sites have good vegetation around them and some trees are tall enough for shade but not many.