Completed Training, Telluride and Black Canyon

We have just completed our training at RMNP, concluding with First Aid and CPR/AEd today. We start our work tomorrow, giving tours of the Holzwarth Historic Site. There is a lot to know about the place and the intriguing story of the Holzwarth family, wish us well. Their story is one of hardship, opportunity, dreams, conflict and perseverance. It should be a lot of fun to tell this story to the vistors who take the time to stop and learn the story.

Prior to this we had just traveled to Telluride for the annual Bluegrass Festival, hooking up with Katherine, Ben and Andy, Ben's friend who also had his son and parents there. It was a great weekend, wonderful weather and music, and they push the boundaries there with the music, much of it is newgrass and beyond. Performers like Sam Bush, Yonder Mountain, Bela Fleck, Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe were some of the ones who delighted us.

Since our coordinator Liz gave us some extra time off, we were also able to fit in a visit to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This is an amazing canyon, about two thousand feet down on average, carved by the Gunnison River. To experience the canyon best, we hiked down to the bottom on the Gunnison trail, a trail that drops 1800 feet in one mile. I should describe it more of a climb than a hike. It was comparable to the Lava Falls trail that almost killed us at the Grand Canyon last year, but without the scree which made it that much better. It was wonderful down by the river, we were able to hang out there for a while, hoping to see some kayakers who sometimes get that far in, but didn't see any. We met a young student ranger on the way back up, who told us that sometimes people will haul their kayaks down that trail to the river, amazing. We were able to get to Sunset Point the night before just in time for a great sunset, which is shown in the picture.

We already feel like so much a part of the park and the people who work here, although we have barely scratched the surface of all that the park has to offer. we did get up to the high country one night last week with Katherine, this time getting some great views. But at 12,000 feet, I coluld tell the air was thin! A flat topped mountain stood out, and it turned out to be Long's Peak, looking very different from the west. We have booked two backcountry trips, one next week on the west side here and one at the end of August to Long's Peak, which should be the ideal time to be there. Some good advice from our backcountry office has us doing these trips in optimal ways, but we shall see how they go.