THE END: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is only about an hour from Almont so we stop over for a night before reporting to duty.

We find a nice campsite.

There are maybe only a half dozen campers in the park.

We were walking the loop to the pay station and Gary heard a rustle in the shrubs next to us, turns out there were a couple of deer in them. Tucson wanted to play - but they seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere.

We got settled in and decided to do the East Portal Drive down the Canyon to the Gorge and the Gunnison River. Oh boy! Extreme 18 percent grades and sharp curves - haven't seen that in awhile - Gary might forget how to drive on a straight road!

Run Squirrel Run!

We make it to the bottom and the river. The narrowest section of the canyon at the river is 40 ft.

The Gunnison Diversion Dam is on one end.

Here is a model depicting the East Portal Road into the Gorge.

The Rim Rock trail went out of the campground and goes along the ridge of the Canyon to the Visitor's Center.

The Canyon was never seen by Spanish Explorers, Capt. John Gunnison bypassed the gorge in his search for a river crossing. The first written record was by the Hayen Expedition of 1873-1874 they deemed it inaccessible. In the 1900's people settled in the Uncompahgre Valley wanted river water for irrigation. In 1901 Abraham Lincoln Fellows and William Torrence floated 33 miles on a rubber mattress in 9 days and decided an irrigation tunnel was possible. The 5.8 mile Gunnison Diversion Tunnel began in 1905 was completed in 1909 and still provides river water for irrigation.

Like the Grand Canyon, you can get right to the edge.

Boy Dad, it's a long way down!

It got the name black because its so deep and narrow that very little sunlight can penetrate it.

Some of the Canyon reminds me of the Grand Canyon but this was formed in a completely different manner. The Grand Canyon is soft river-carved rock sculpted by erosion. Black Canyon is hard rock uplifted then cut through by fast moving water. Up until the Gunnison River was damned up, it was carving the canyon at a rate of 1 inch every 100 years, or the width of a hair per year.

It never ceases to amaze me how a tree can grow just about anywhere.

The South Rim scenic road runs 7 miles and has 12 overlooks. The trails to the overlooks vary from a few hundred feet to 1/2 mile. We probably put in a good 6 or 7 miles this day.

The river drops and average of 96 feet / mile in the park. It drops 480 feet in one 2 mile stretch. In 48 miles it loses more elevation than the Mississippi River does in over 1500 miles from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.

The landscape up top is mostly pinyon pine, juniper and scrub oak.

The Painted Wall is the tallest vertical wall in the state of Colorado with a height of 2,250 ft. The deepest section of the Canyon is 2,722 ft. This look-out point is called Dragon View.