The Canyon of Black
The day started off early with us heading towards Black Canyon National Park. Heading over Monarch Pass and making our way down through the hills and valleys we passed by the Blue Mesa Reservoir, which is the biggest Reservoir in Colorado and the blue water truly reflects the name. Finally we made it to the canyon entrance and started our journey on the South Rim of the Canyon.
The Black Canyons are truly magnificent, although I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, I would say they are just as majestic. Traveling along the road we had many opportunities to hike out to the canyon rims and look down the depths of the canyons. The Gunnison River runs along the bottom of the canyon and drops 95 ft per mile, so it flows quite quickly and you can hear it as it echos off the canyon walls. At one point in the canyon the total depth from top to bottom is 2,300 ft, just under 1/2 mile deep! If you put the Empire State Building in the canyon it would be slightly over half the height of the canyon. Incredible to think about!
As we traveled from pull-off to pull-off and viewed all the different scenes, we started to notice a trend. Where the water ran over the rocks it smoothed them out or rather refined them, but where the water was absent, the rocks were jagged and/or unrefined. Such a picture of how G-d’s word works within us, if we let it flow within (guide)us it will smooth out all of our rough/jagged areas and refine us to be exactly who G-d designed us to be. Just some thoughts that arose during the trip…
We arrived at the end of the South Rim drive and there was one more hike that would bring you out to the tip of the canyon where you could almost get an over-all-view of what we had seen previously. At the beginning of the trail there was this pamphlet with some wonderful words in it that stated: “We do not all stand on the same platform religiously, politically, or socially, but there is one place where we have everything in common, where we are willing to share everything we have with other fellow, and that is anywhere in the great outdoors. When we meet there somehow we are able to lay aside our differences and the things that normally divide us into social groups for there is a power – an attraction… a fascination (that) once it gets ahold of a man he can never get away from it.” I don’t know who exactly wrote it, but it is so true and apparent in all of today’s events and with the people we interacted with. Everyone stood in wonder beside friends and strangers alike and there was no differences that disconnected you from the person next to you. I know I’ve wrote about this feeling before, but it’s such an incredible truth that I thought it was worth repeating.
After a wonderful and adventurous few hours we decided it was time to head back to basecamp for dinner in downtown Salida. After eating a delicious meal in the great outdoors alongside an arm of the Arkansas River at the Twisted Cook restaurant with delightful conversation and hardy laughs, we settled in for a good nights sleep blanketed, once again by G-d’s star filled sky. Been quite the full day; yet, G-d willing, we’re all ready for another tomorrow!
