One of our trips was to go over the Blue Mesa Dam and see some of the sights.
The Dillon Pinnacles are a great view from the road. There is a hike to next to them but we liked this view better from the road.
The Blue Mesa Tuff is a hard rock that serves a cap according to the poster that the site. The Blue Mesa Tuff is the oldest of the ash-flow formations bust most of the formation is being removed by erosion. However, the picture belows makes you think that the cap is the only “blue mesa tuff” when in fact most of this area is made up of blue mesa tuff which dominates most of the cliffs in this area.
What was interesting was the age of the Pinnacles. As you can see from below, the top is “only” 28 million years and the base is 150 million years. It is amazing to see this and try to comprehend that much time. Since this is part Curecanti National Recreation area it is maintained and protected.
The Morrow Point Boat Tour in the Black Canyon is an excellent trip. You do have to go to the National Park Visitor Center to pay for it as you cannot just show up because the Rangers will not accept any money at the boat. This ride is a “leisurely 1½ hour boat tour on the Morrow Point Reservoir. You will travel into the famous Black Canyon of the Gunnison, learning about geology, wildlife, early inhabitants, the narrow-gauge railroad, dams, or reservoirs.” On our way to the parking lot, we were lucky to see a young Buck – who just stared at us.
The “exciting” thing about this tour is that you have to walk down 232 stairs to the canyon floor. We all joked about 232 down and 1,000 up! The trek back up of course will make you winded but there are lots of stops/benches on the way that you can rest. When you get down to the bottom, you will have to walk another 3/4 mile to get to the boat.
Here is a view from of the stairs below. You can see the parking lot on the left so you can try to understand your walk down (and up). This walk is called the Pine Creek Trail which totals .9 miles and follows part of the original train tracks.
The walk down to the boat after you finished all those stairs was nice also. We got to view the mining shaft and the beautiful still water with great reflections.
Our trip began with an overview from Ranger Curt who informed us that the trail was originally built by the railroad. This entire trail is now underwater since the dams were built and raised the Gunnison River. The Train was run by Denver and Rio Grande Railway and was a narrow gauge railroad which meant the tracks were only 3′ apart. The train you saw in Post #1 was the train that used to run this track along the Gunnison River. To know that you were following the railroad tracks was awesome to think that it was no all underwater.
Before we got on the boat we were able to walk past the boat further on the Pine Creek Trail. Since we were going to pass by this part of the trail while on the boat, we only took this picture.
The boat ride began and the information that Ranger Curt provided was very interesting. First look was the Chipeta Falls. Interesting to see it looks like it comes right out of the rock but as you come around you can see it does start higher.
We found an old picture of the falls along with the train across from it where the railroad tracks are 20′ feet under the water. It also shows that not much of the rocks have changed over the years but the water is highest so it looks shorter.
Then you get to see the Curecanti Needle. We haven’t figured out why they call these a needle because there are no “eyes” in the needle but just goes up like a tall pyramid.
More views from the tour. 
Part of the view was to see this old telegraph pole.
Looking at the below picture you an actually see it next to the train and the top one is when you are looking straight at it on the boat to give you some indication of how high the water is now. The picture below almost matches the picture above.
And a view of the current Curecanti Needle and the railroad tracks at this point are 50′-75′ underwater.
More old pictures of the train through this area to give you some perspective.
Ranger Curt couldn’t help himself and had to point out that flowers do grow from the rocks.
Go to Post #3 for more!
