Sept. 23, 2014 - Blk Gunnison and Visit with Julia

Mike Here
Left Fruita early and did some shopping in Grand Junction. Then on to our motel in Montrose Colorado. Stashed our stuff and went to a Chinese Restaurant that Jim found on his GPS. It was fabulous! We are going to eat the second half of it on our way down to Durango.
Drove up to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Very steep drive to the top of the canyon. Unlike Utah, these walls were dark grey to black. This canyon is very narrow, steep, and 2700 feet deep in places. As a result, the sun does not reach the bottom very often. Several short walks to overlooks took us to the edge where you had to lean over to see the bottom. Very intimidating!

 After doing some laundry, we drove over to visit Julia S, Wanda S's daughter. Those of you from Gulf View should remember Wanda as she was in the park for a year and a half in Cathy N's park model. A great, fun lady. So is her daughter. We spent a delightful few hours, enjoying dinner, conversation and a great view from their ranch above Montrose.

Name of Julia's Ranch is 'Winter Saga Ranch'

This is not only the ranch but closer to the mountain range is Julia's home.  It is just beautiful and looking out the back of her home you are looking at mountains.

I personally would never move from there.

Julia has what is called a 'Horse Hotel' and what that means is that people can drop their horse off for a day or two while they do their own thing.  Pretty neat.  This particular horse is owned by Meg Whitman (CEO of Hewlett-Packard) and Julia gets to ride her whenever she wants.

While sitting on Julia's deck we had a wonderful meal and great conversation then watched the sun set over the San Juan Mountains.  Perfect ending to a perfect day.