Today we’ll be leaving Ouray and heading up Highway 550 to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. I don’t know much about the canyon other than that it was highly recommended by the campground folks up in Montrose and has two large campgrounds. I’ll learn more when we arrive.
Here’s my last Ouray shot, which is really just a silly one of the one house in town I know I would have wanted to own if I was still 10 and playing with Barbies..

Pink paint!
We’ll be passing next to, but not through, Ridgway, where I took this photo of a liquor store because it had a surfboard next to the door. WordPress didn’t want to post it previously so let’s try again.

I miss the ocean!
Then we’ll be going back up through Montrose. A couple pics I didn’t post from there before included this historic McDonald’s sign ..

We have not eaten at the Golden Arches once on this trip.
And this pending residential development, which I found interesting for mention of the “green” HUD building incentives (the reference may be hard to see on the billboard sign.)

If you build it, they will come?
The only drawback to heading north again is that we’re now becoming dangerously close to running out of our American Automobile Association Indian Country map, which has been an absolute must for these first 4 weeks. (As of today we have been on the road for a month and traveled over 1,700 miles.)
I highly recommend this map. Get a couple extra copies and hold onto them for fear that someday AAA may stop publishing it. Side note: It’s also very popular with the Navajo police detectives in Tony Hillerman’s novels, which Erik and I have both been reading.

The Map.
We have used it so much it is ripped up the middle.
If I had to place a bet on whether or not we’ll have cell/internet at the Black Canyon my guess would be no, but if we do I’ll be sure to update with what it’s all about later today.
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