Today we drove to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The canyon is a crack in the Colorado Plateau half a mile deep yet very narrow, just 40 feet across at one point called the “Narrows” with the raging Gunnison River as its floor.
The entire canyon stretches for 48 miles, but it’s the 14-mile section from Gunnison to Montrose that was elevated to national park status in 1999. The park is one of the smallest national parks, comprising only 30,385 acres.
We drove the 7-mile South Rim Drive and took all but one of the many short, easy trails which took us through pine, juniper and oak to see the other rim and beautiful rock formations. At each overlook there was a sign describing the geology which WE didn’t need because the geologist in Mike came out!
One of the many natural beauties we viewed is the Painted Wall which is 2,250’, making it the tallest vertical wall in the state, where dark expanses of gneiss and shist plunge headlong to the river’s edge. There were many places to view the unique geologic formations and panoramas of surrounding mountains. The sky was blue with white clouds.
We then drove down to the bottom of the canyon. The road is at a 16 percent grade. It, too, was a pretty ride, ending down at the river where we saw two fly fishermen. The weather had been perfect throughout the entire day with a cool breeze and temperature in the 70s except down at the bottom where it was 81°. We enjoyed a picnic lunch at one of the stops, which we haven’t done in a long time. Since we've been in these high Rocky Mountain elevations we have had to break out the comforter and electric heater before bedtime since it drops down to the 40s.
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