If I Were Going...: Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park

It’s hard to believe that it has been a year since Scott and I took the Little Guy camping.

On the road again

But, with all his blues activities and all our other trips, time flew by. So, we decided we needed to see some more Colorado.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Really interesting patterns

We headed out for one night of camping at Black Canyon of the Gunnison, one of Colorado's three National Parks. We consider this fairly close, but it's a four-hour drive. This was only our first stop, however.

It's a spectacular canyon featuring sheer rock walls laced with volcanic intrusions of pegmatite, which create wild crosshatches and designs.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison was established as a National Monument in 1933. It became a National Park in 1999.

The first time we went there (with Donna and Rick and all our kids in 1989), it was still a National Monument.

This is what you see from Dragon's View (see it?)

And, in some spots, the softer rock has eroded away, leaving pegmatite spires.

Spires

It is called the Black Canyon because it is so steep that sunlight has trouble penetrating its depths, shrouding the canyon in shadow, causing the rocky walls to appear black. In fact, some parts get only 33 minutes of direct sun a day. At its narrowest point the canyon is only 40 ft. wide at the river. One wall, at 2300’, is the tallest cliff in Colorado.

A view into the canyon

The Gunnison River - a beautiful green on this visit - drops an average of 34 feet per mile through the entire canyon, making it the fifth steepest mountain descent in North America.

A closer look at the gorgeous river

By comparison, the Colorado River drops an average of 7.5 feet per mile through the Grand Canyon. The greatest descent of the Gunnison River occurs within the park at Chasm View dropping 240 feet per mile.

Gunnison River

Once we arrived, we set up camp and took a drive. Almost immediately, we saw a Bear. Yes, another Colorado Bear in a week!

Not a common sighting at this Park

This one crossed the street right in front of our car and then stopped. We stopped really, really close (I had to lean out of the car to take a picture because the rear view mirror was in the way).

I just love seeing Bears in the wild

We drove down to the river on the very, very steep trail (some of the grades are 16 percent) for a picnic lunch.

At the bottom

Then, we drove back up to the top and stopped at multiple overlooks, where I walked about three miles of trails and saw the canyon from multiple perspectives.

From the trail

More views

Then, back to our campsite. Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a bit scrubby, but the sites are sufficiently far enough apart to make for pleasant camping.

Home, sweet home

Photo: Scott Stevens

There was a mother Mule Deer with three fawns in the campground.

Mule Deer babies are so adorable

Twins!

The next morning, we did the hike at the overlook at the end – it’s about a mile one-way, but the view isn’t as spectacular as other overlooks. I don’t think I’d do it again.

We also saw male Mule Deer ...