After completing the loop over the Rocky Mountains, we headed west (again) along I-70 to Grand Junction. We crashed in a hotel and were up and out the next morning for another long drive. First we headed south from Grand Junction and climbed along the Gunnison river as we drove into a high volcanic dome. The Gunnison river carves an impressive black-walled canyon through this uplifted land.

This photo shows the steep walls of the canyon and their typical black (basalt with pegamite dikes) colouration.This photo shows the canyon 'emptying' out into the broad valley and farming country south of Grand Junction.In this photo you can really see the pegamite dikes in the rock. The dikes are formed when the already cooled and hardened black basalt is broken and fractured by subsequent volcanic activity and the pegamite flows up into the cracks and, in turn, hardens.

 

Rocky Mountain National Park 2001
Colorado National Monument 2001