August 8, 2022
Utes
Black Canyon to Pa-Co-Chu-Puk Campground
The bear box at my campsite is useful for storing my gear, while I go for a morning ride along the south rim road.
However as I fill my water bottles at a dedicated water station, I notice that my rear tyre is slightly flat. So I pump it up and will see if it goes down again.
After a short climb I'm soon following the edge of Black Canyon for a bit. Along the way are a few lookouts and short walks, leading to more lookouts.
The road is undulating and exposed as it's warm up here. Thankfully with only holiday traffic it's an easy ride, where I'm regularly stopping at a trailhead to go for a short like 200 metre walks.
These walks are easy and allow views of the canyon and the river way down below. The only downside is that the morning sun is right over the canyon for most of the time.
There are a couple of ranger talks in the morning and I have managed to make the geology talk. He explains how the canyon came to be here due to a mixture of factors, from shifting tectonic plates, volcanoes and a moved river.
By lunchtime I have seen all I want to see, so I'm soon quickly descending the climb which took me a couple of hours to get up but now only takes me 15 minutes. While it doesn't take much longer to get to the city of Montrose.
With water restricted at Black Canyon and me not having a shower for three days, I feel dirty. However, all accommodation in Montrose I can find is expensive but I have found a campground south of town that has showers.
In the meantime, after using a proper floor pump at a bike shop and visiting an okay history museum at the old scenic railway station. I'm ready to leave town using a short cemented rail trail which takes me to an informative Native American museum. Where I learn about how the Ute nation had there lands slowly restricted by the American government over a thirty year period in the late 1800's.
South of here the rail trail soon runs out as we meet the highway heading south. Thankfully a side road exist. I assume this is the old railroad route. For the next while this side road is a mixture of gravel and paved road but all I care is that I don't have to deal with the regular traffic on the highway. The further south I go, the more a mountain range begins to appear.
Once the side road runs out, I'm forced into the highway. Occasionally the old railroad route is visible passing through private property. It would be nice if this was a rail trail.
Thankfully soon a large campsite appears and even better I soon find the shower block. While the tent site is across a river and with only a couple of sites occupied I have a quite night.
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