Denver, and heading east

The main road from Black Canyon to Denver is US-50. It goes over Monarch Pass, and in early May, it was snowing at the top. Further along the road I stopped in Fairplay, home of Two-Mile High Stadium, and apparently inspiration for South Park (not that I'm a big fan of that show).

This was my first visit to Denver, a place whose airport I've seen quite a few times. I didn't spend a grand amount of time there, since I arrived late in the day. The next day was spent at the Denver Art Museum, absorbing the new modern wing and an interesting special exhibit on artistic influences on the Impressionists.

After Denver, I headed east across the plains. The race east was only interrupted by a brief 30-mile detour to the highest point in Kansas. (It's a bump in the prairie called Mount Sunflower...)

Dinner and rest were in Topeka, Kansas, since that's where I got tired.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

It's a long road from eastern Utah back home.

I didn't follow that route. I aimed for a pretty spot in the middle of the Colorado Rockies, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. (Yet another place I never heard of until I started looking at driving routes.)

The canyon is sightworthy because it is one of the deepest and narrowest canyons in North America. The walls of the canyon are very hard pre-Cambrian rocks -- the same kind of stuff found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The canyon is over 2000 feet deep at some points.

I spent a cold and rainy night (the rain being something of a novelty after all those days in the desert) there before continuing on to Denver.