Hiking Adventure: Eagle Valley Trail

There are very few places to get a good hike in November where I moved from.  However, here there are plenty of good places to take a hike.  There has already been snow at higher elevations, but here in the valley the trails are nice and clear.  This area is BLM land which means it is owned by the Bureau of Land Management.  It's high desert and at this time of year, the temperatures are just about perfect for the exertion of hiking here.

This area is part of the Gunnison Gorge and is the other side of the Black Canyon.  The layers of rock here are thrust up at steep angles. 

The trail starts by following a slot canyon up for several hundred feet.  The trail twists and turns through the canyon.  Some areas are slickwashed rock.....not a place I'd want to be caught in during a downpour.

This area is full of sandstone that has been carved by millenia of wind and water.  Many hollows can be found all over the cliff faces,

At the top of the ridge the trail divides, north becomes the Sidewinder trail and south becomes the Sunset Rocks trail.  I followed the Sunset Rocks trail south for quite a ways.  The view to the west was a beautiful panorama.

 When I reached my lunchbreak point I had a fabulous view of the the valley and the plateau to the west, the San Juan Mountains to the south, and the Grand Mesa to the north.  Not bad for a mid-November afternoon.