Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Gunnison Route...South Rim...


The person you can barely see is Norm, she is not sure if going down or going up was the worst part.

This is the Gunnision river taken from the bank. We could hardly imagine carrying camping and fishing gear down the "trail" we just came down. This is the most popular unmaintained route to the inner canyon, but it is also strenuous, real strenuous for a couple of RVer's. It is the route to take for a first time hike to the bottom of the canyon. The hike has an 80 foot chain 1/3 of the way down! That should have told us something. You have to get a "back country permit" before anything can begin. The permit, as was explained to us, meant that if you could not come back the same day, be prepared to spend the night and be rescued the following day. Another warning, not heeded. Here are the highlights of the hike, 1.5 hours on the descent, distance: 1 mile, vertical drop: 1800 feet, ascent: 2 hours, with 3/4 miles of river access, 3 campsites and believe it or not, a compost toilet. We were also informed that the poison ivy could be chest high. After learning all of this, it makes one wonder why we would not only go ahead and do the hike, but are already planning on another inner canyon hike from the north rim next summer.


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