Are you planning to travel to Black Canyon Of the Gunnison? Then, you are in the right place. Check out the post for the perfect travel guide below
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is the second National Park we visited in our Colorado trip. We visited Rocky Mountain National Park as our first stop in our Colorado trip and if you would like to know what we did in RMNP, then check out my post here. We stayed in an AirBnb in Montrose, 20 minutes away from the National Park. Our drive from RMNP to the Black Canyon through the city of Gunnison is a beautiful, picturesque drive in Western Colorado with Gunnison River flowing with us. Gunnison River is one of the largest tributaries of the Colorado River.
Black Canyon National Park is one of the overwhelming and the deadliest National Park we have ever visited so far. Yes, if you fear heights and have severe vertigo, then I would suggest exercising caution while visiting the park. But, if you visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park despite it, then you would be surprised to see steepest cliffs, oldest rocks, and narrowest canyons. Gunnison River along with the natural forces have sculpted this vertical wilderness of rocks, water, and sky for over two million years.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is one of the least visited National Parks in the US which received around 30,000 visitors in 2022. The steepest canyon and the park’s smaller size make it a perfect park to visit with lesser crowds. There are two main entrances to the park – South Rim and North Rim. On the rim, the distance between the South Rim and the North Rim is only 1,100 feet in the narrowest section.
Black Canyon – Gunnison Point
The Gunnison River drops an average of 34 feet per mile through the entire canyon, making it the 5th steepest mountain descent in North America. The greatest descent of the Gunnison River occurs within the park at Chasm View dropping 240 feet per mile. The Black Canyon is named so because of its steepness. Its steepness makes it difficult for the sunlight to penetrate to the depths of canyon. As a result, certain spots of the Canyon receive sunlight for only about 33 minutes a day and the canyon appear black. The canyon is only 40ft wide at the river at its narrowest point.
The South Rim is the most popular in the National Park and it is close to the city of Montrose. Most of the people visit Black Canyon on their road trip in Colorado. You can also fly to Grand Junction and then drive to the Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park. Those who want to visit the South Rim from the North Rim must drive around 77 miles which takes approximately around 2 hours. Also, the South Rim has more options for staying, campgrounds and easily accessible. The south rim is open all through the year while the north rim will be closed for the winter. There are not many hikes in the park and for exploring the Inner Canyon, you must have a wilderness permit.
The Gunnison River can be accessed through the East Portal Road. The East Portal Road is extremely steep and requires all-wheel drive. The road is extremely steep (16% grades) with hairpin curves. The East portal road is closed in the winter.
What did we do?
We visited only the South Rim of the Park as we had allocated a day for the park. Let me be clear, on the first look at the Black Canyon, I was scared, given our history of Vertigo. Black Canyon is steeper than Grand Canyon. Also, the trails to most of the overviews didn’t have side rails and one must walk along the edges of the rock to access the view. Hence, we decided to visit the overlooks without Rishi.
There are only 4 hikes in the South Rim and one has to hike through the canyons. Hence, we decided to do scenic drive alone with Rishi. We had to take turns to the overlooks along the south rim as Rishi was in the car for most of the drive. We took Rishi only to the Gunnison Point overlook close to the visitor center. The trial to the overlook had side rails and provides panoramic view of the Black canyon.
The South Rim Road is 7 miles long and has 12 viewpoints. The scenic drive starts at Tomichi Point, just before you reach the visitor center, and ends at High Point. Some overlooks are along the road and for some of them, one must do some walking.
- Tomichi Point – east facing overlook and lies outside the park.
- Gunnison Point – located at the South Rim visitor center; offers panoramic views of the canyons.
- Pulpit Rock overlook – most popular overlook suggested by the Rangers; provides a view of the Gunnison River.
- Cross Fissures Overlook – must walk on an unpaved trail; provides the views of overlapping ridges.
- Rock Point – must walk on unpaved trail.
- Devils Lookout – Both this and Rock Point lie above the narrowest part of the whole canyon though this cannot properly be appreciated here because of the intervening rocks.
- Chasm View – one of the most spectacular overlooks in the park. A very short path descends slightly to a sizeable, railing protected viewing area above perhaps the steepest part of the whole canyon, where the cliffs fall 1,840 feet over a horizontal distance of just 400 feet.
- Painted Wall View – most visited overlook; offers a different panorama from the chasm view; Painted Wall is the highest cliff in Colorado, bordering the far side of the river; a 2,250-foot wall of rock about half a mile across. This marks the end of the most enclosed part of Black Canyon since downstream the sides, although becoming even higher, are noticeably less steep, and more overgrown.
- Cedar Point – a 303-yard path heads west from the parking area to an overlook of the lower canyon; 1.5 miles of the river are in view, flowing over rapids, and edged by pebble beaches and patches of greenery. The V-shaped canyon curves northwards out of sight, as the valley sides start to recede.
- Dragon Point – offers the same view as Cedar point.
- Sunset View – the westernmost viewpoint along the South Rim Road, is accompanied by quite a large parking area with picnic tables and a restroom.
- High point – a mile from the Sunset view; last overlook on the South Rim
Painted Walls of Black Canyon
Lupine – Wildflowers along the way
We visited almost all the overlooks, and our favorite ones are Gunnison Point, Cross Fissures, Chasm View, Painted Wall and Sunset view. When one of us was visiting the overlooks, the other one was Rishi. The park has wildflowers all along the way during spring season and Rishi spent most of his time in the park clicking lupine, sagebrush and other wildflowers along the South Rim paved road. If you have kids, I highly recommend adult supervision in the park.
East Portal Road
After our drive along the South Rim, we headed to the East Portal and checked with the ranger in the entrance. The ranger advised us not to drive along the East Portal with a Toddler and the weather was bad. Most of the summer afternoons will have thunderstorms. Hence, we didn’t visit East Portal Road and headed back to Montrose.
In a nutshell, Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP will remain as one of our favorites for its deadliest canyons, steep cliffs and painted walls in the canyon. Glad we visited the park!
If you have visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, let me know what you like about it in the comments. If you would like to visit other forms of Canyons, then check out my post about Grand Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Bryce National Park and Zion National Park.
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Thanks,
Karthi
