Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was quite far from major routes through the state of Colorado. The isolation limited the number of visitors to what I believe should be on everyone's bucket list. The only exception would be for folks queasy about heights.
The walls of the canyon seemed to be nearly vertical - in places, the canyon was twice as deep as it was wide. One graphic told us that if the Empire State building was at the bottom of the canyon it would reach just over half way up the gorge.
"Geologists believe that the modern Gunnison River became established in its current course about 10 to 15 million years ago, just after the last eruptions in the San Juans and West Elks.....At the rate of about one inch per every hundred years (or the width of a human hair each year), the Gunnison slowly worked its way through the resistant rock, forming the narrow, steep-sided Black Canyon of the Gunnison." If you are a rock monkey like me, read the full story here.
The visitor's center had a display showing rocks to be found in the park. Pegmatite (an igneous rock of mostly quartz, feldspar and mica) was the coolest.
We attended a geology hike with Ranger Chris who helped us understand how and why the canyon was formed. Billions of years, plate tectonics, 20,000-foot volcanoes (long since eroded) and an unlikely set of circumstances led to this unique landscape. Some of the oldest rock on earth is exposed in the canyon.
A vein of pegmatite in the wild.
What the camera does not capture is the mica embedded throughout the deposit making everything sparkle, the stone and the ground.
Hydrophyllum capitatum, Dwarf Waterleaf
We met Kaylee and Ian (thevanimals.com) at the visitor's center in their conversion van. They traveled full time in their beautifully crafted van. I thought it was very interesting they had not paid for a camping site in more than a year.
Patches obtained from each park are velcroed to the headliner.
Even Sam was apprehensive about walking out to the overlook at the visitor's center. The veins of pegmatite are visible here as light colored vertical stripes on the far wall of the canyon.
The East Portal road took us down to the Gunnison river but we were cautioned to drive in low gear as it was a 16 percent grade for about five miles. Crystal Dam was releasing water (4,500 cubic feet per second) to make room for some near term expected snowmelt.
One of the best views of the river was from the Rock Point overlook. You could hear the rushing waters of the Gunnison echoing up the canyon walls.
At one overlook we could see the river but could not see a break in the rock for the riverbed. Somewhere in the picture below the rock on the near side transitioned to rock on the far side but we just could not see where. We decided it must have gone through a tunnel, which of course, was not possible.
At Painted Wall view we saw the deepest section of the canyon (at 2,250 feet it was also the highest cliff in the state of Colorado).
Our last stop for the day was Dragon Point. On our next visit, we will allow more than just a few hours to explore this park. Another item to note was the altitude. At over 9,000 feet it did not take much exertion to highlight how out of shape we were. Even Sam sat down in the shade on one hike and refused to go any further. He had to be carried for a while until he got his second wind.
Don't be fooled, this is a small bicycle sized puddle and I am nearly on my belly trying to capture the snowcapped mountains in the refection. The four-inch ridge of the hole would not allow it, but I liked the clouds just the same. David didn't see me doing this or he would have surely captured the insanity.
The river view opened up more from Dragon Point in the panoramic shot below. We also had an even better view of Painted Wall.
Molten rock was extruded into fractures and cracks in the Gneiss and Schist an estimated two billion years ago creating the lighter colored veins in the painted wall.
Different perspectives created different looks below. I used the HDR setting from a standing position which captured more of the red sandstone at the base of the tree.
Joani placed her camera at ground level looking up to capture more of the blue sky along with the clouds.
It was a long day of driving but so worth the effort to be able to visit this amazing National Park.
