Welcome to the Colorado backcountry

The vast acreage of wilderness and backcountry beauty in Colorado make it one of the more popular locations for camping, backpacking, and day-hiking.

In addition to a eight National Parks and Monuments, Colorado boasts an equal number of Wilderness Areas, millions of acres of National Forest and BLM land, and over three dozen state parks.

From mountains to deserts, and grasslands to canyons, one could spend a lifetime hiking the trails of Colorado and not cover all of them.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison




About an hour and a half south of my house is the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  Because it's so close, I try to get down there at least once a year.  A few weeks ago, I realized I had yet to visit this year, so I made the journey on a gorgeous autumn afternoon.

It's a challenge to capture the canyon's impressive majesty with photographs.  Because it's so narrow and deep, little light makes its way to the bottom.  In October, the low angle of the sun allows even less light to penetrate the depths of the canyon.  That does nothing to diminish the experience of viewing it from any of the overlooks on the north or south rims, and thus I don't hesitate to visit regardless of the time of year.

The scrub oak was still ablaze in color so late in the season, and the rim of the canyon has a lot of it, along with pinon pine, cacti,  and other high desert flora.