Spring Break of 2011 - Day One - Black Canyon

    Has we are spending our last year in Colorado Springs we realized that we wanted to finally go away for spring break.  My kids school has two weeks off for spring break instead of the traditional one week.  Over the years we have just stayed put and drove each other crazy while I'll clean out the house from top to bottom.  This year with the house on the market to sell I didn't have much to keep me busy.  So, what do we do for a week?

  On Sunday the 27th of March we headed out after attending sacrament meeting that morning.  I was nervous, as history in Colorado Springs we tend to have a large snow storm during spring break.  We woke that morning to find a thick fog and frost covered trees.  By the time we left the fog had lighten up and the frost was slowly melting.  Our first day was just driving to Montrose, Colorado.  The drive was easy until we hit Monarch Mountain.  It was a little scary driving through the snow and icy conditions.  After about 20 minutes of white knuckle driving we were finally clear and move closer to our hotel.  Before reaching the hotel we went to Black Canyon (Located just outside of Montrose).  It was really cold so it was a quick everybody out for a picture and then jump back into the warm car.

 
There was one wall of the canyon that was called the Painted wall.  I realize the picture is a little fuzzy but it looks like a dragon was painted on the wall of the canyon.  I had the sun in my face and I was about done with the "Are we there yet" from the kids. 

The canyon is one of the steepest in the country and it was quite a drop.  You could see the Colorado River running through the bottom of the canyon.  It was very green water and was really pretty.  Because there was a lot of snow and ice on the trails we couldn't really hike down the canyon.  It was a drive by or a drive through the canyon.

One of the other sites at Black Canyon is something called the alter.  This is a picture of the alter that is about 8000 feet high.  There isn't really room for error on either side.  This alter reminds me of the story of the Zoramites and the Rameumptom.  I know for sure you won't catch me up there or my kids.  So, after seeing all we could see at Black Canyon we finally off to the hotel.  We took a dip in a very cold pool and after 30 minutes and blue lips we went to dinner and it was time to sleep.  From some sleeping in a hotel room was an adventure but for others it is pure torture.  All I could think was am I going to last until next Monday or are my children going to be dropped off a cliff.