Having been to the South Rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison twice, I thought it would be interesting to do the North Rim. It sounded relatively harmless. You turned off highway 50 onto highway 92 and headed out. The sign said 52 miles. That was the first sign I when I knew I was in trouble. After passing the Blue Mesa Dam on the Gunnison River, the road started going up, up and up with no guard rails and drop offs in the thousands of feet. It didn't bother me going up because I was driving on the inside of the curves, but the coming down! That meant 52 miles driving on the outside of a road with serious drop offs and no guard rails. No thank you! I turned around and headed for safety. Where was Helga you ask? In the car coaching me.
Next we returned to Cimarron to visit the Rail Road Display. It showed a cattle loading operation and bridge on a narrow gauge rail track. Narrow gauge was 3' and standard gauge was 4' 8.5". What this means was light rails could be bent to accommodate tighter curves; road beds and trestles did not have to be built to bear the stress of heavier standard gauge equipment; and the difference in gauge paid off when rock or dirt had to be removed. Thus, the Rocky Mountains were conquered.
Since the Morrow Point Dam was a short distance away we stopped by. It was the first double-curvature , thin-arch concrete dam to be built in the US (1963-71);
it has a unique free-fall spillway with 4 15-foot square openings in the crest of the dam, spilling water more than 350 feet into a 60-foot stilling basin; and the power plant is in a room excavated in hard rock, 225 feet inside the canyon wall. Helga was impressed.
Tomorrow it's off to the Florissant Fossil Beds and Garden of the Gods, near Woodland Park, CO. We will meet with friends of ours, Chris and Angela Racine, for dinner Friday night before heading off to Olathe, KS.
Morrow Point Dam
Narrow Gauge Rail Route
Road To The North Rim
