Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Wednesday, June 2, 2010 Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Eleanor: Many thanks to Marianne F., who told us we shouldn't miss seeing Black Canyon in western Colorado. It was amazing! We entered the South Rim from the town of Montrose. Once again we were at 8000' above sea level. It is named "Black Canyon" because it is so deep, sheer and narrow that little sunlight can penetrate. Early travelers found it foreboding and there is no evidence of any human occupation, even by the nearby Ute Indians. The Gunnison River is named for an early explorer of the region, Capt. John Gunnison.

The rock here is very different from what we have seen to date. It is very hard rock and the canyon was formed differently from the Grand Canyon. Here millions of years ago the Gunnison River cut through soft volcanic rock but then met the harder rock and had to cut through it by the force of the water. To quote from our fact sheet, in 48 miles the Gunnison loses more elevation than the Mississippi does in 1500 miles from Minn. to the Gulf of Mexico. The power of the fast falling water enables the river to erode tough rock. The river drops an average of 96 feet per mile. In one 2-mile stretch, it drops 480 feet. It now lies 1/2 mile down from the rim. It can be seen rushing along if one dares look down the precipitous cliffs. Very scary. We didn't go to river level, but read that the roar of the water makes it almost impossible to carry on a conversation.

We did quite a bit of walking from parking areas out to the edge of the abyss. We saw many lovely flowers blooming along the pathways--purple lupines (see photo), yellow arrowleaf balsamroot, red cactus blossoms, and white serviceberry bushes.