Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

We jogged east to Montrose, Colorado to see The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It was on our itinerary last summer when we took our 72 day trip to the west coast and back. We didn’t get to see it because US Rte 50 between the park entrance and Gunnison was closed. We were staying just west of Gunnison and the trip to the park was close to three hours one way due to the closure. It’s still closed Monday – Thursday, 8:30 AM – 12:30 PM and 1:30 PM – 5:30 PM. This time we came from the west and the road is open from Montrose past the park entrance. The trip to the park was 24 minutes.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is one of the steepest, deepest and narrowest canyons in the world. In the park it reaches depths from 1800 to 2700 feet deep. At its narrowest point on the rim it is only 1100 feet wide and at the river, just 40 feet wide.

We drove to the end of the main park road at High Point, 8289 feet above sea level. We then hiked about three fourths of a mile to Warner Point, the place where the gorge reaches its greatest depth. Not only were the views of the canyon stunning,

the views to the south and west, over the valley to Montrose, were also captivating. At mid altitude there are a number of beautiful ranches. We think the white hills between the ranches and Montrose are volcanic ash, but I can’t find a specific reference.

Along the way we came across these two Western Collared Lizards. They hung around for several minutes while we watched.

This is looking upstream from Warner Point. The point is named for Mark T. Warner, a Presbyterian minister who came here in 1917 from Ohio. He worked for years to have this canyon preserved. He was instrumental in getting the Lion’s Club to build a road to the south rim in 1929. In 1933 the canyon was made a National Monument and in 1999 the protected area was enlarged and made a National Park.

This is the equally impressive view downstream. This canyon is so deep and narrow that there is no historical evidence of Native American use below the rim.

On our drive back out we stopped at the overlook for the Painted Wall. The rock is black gneiss with intrusions of pink pegmatite. Molten pegmatite was pushed up as magma into cracks in the gneiss. These rocks are 1.8 billion years old. About 2 million years ago the river, which is confined by mountains to the north, east and south, started cutting into this old, hard rock. The steep canyon gradient of 43 feet to 95 feet per mile created tremendous water power. Compare this to the 7 feet per mile gradient of the Colorado in the Grand Canyon. In spring floods the water has enough force to propel four foot boulders.

In 1972 Bill Forrest and Kris Walker were the first to climb this 2,500 foot wall. I just couldn’t picture it as I gazed at this expanse.