Driving Along Black Canyon of the Gunnison’s Stunning Cliffs

To be perfectly honest I was not aware of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park until recently. However, it was a good one to add to our list of national park visits in Colorado. Someone told me it was like Grand Canyon National Park. To some extent that’s true, but the Black Canyon seems deeper and more narrow with its own beauty so it is worth visiting.

We didn’t make an effort to leave Ourey very early. The national park was only an hour away. We figured we had plenty of time. Our one concern for the day was the weather. The weather bureau was predicting high winds, and that concerned us. While we did experience a few strong wind gusts, the weather fortunately wasn’t that troublesome.

It was a pretty easy drive to the visitor center at Black Canyon. The only challenge was construction. We had to wait at one point as a construction project created a one way only, one lane road. The wait for our turn seemed much longer than it probably was.

The visitor center at the South Rim is one of the smallest visitor centers I have seen at a national park. The center consisted of a small gift shop and a few informative displays as well as some rangers ready to answer visitor’s questions.

Outside the visitor center was a short trail that lead out to the first major viewpoint we would encounter. The view was awe inspiring. We were looking at extremely tall cliffs that seemed to go on forever. Way down below one could see the river flowing through this amazingly tall canyon. The rocks had different colors to them, but the colors were more subdued than I had anticipated. It was not as colorful as the Grand Canyon, but the cliffs seemed taller. I wondered if the overcast skies created the somewhat dull color of the cliff sides. Perhaps if the sun had been shining brightly on the canyon walls the colors would have been more intense.

At this point we thought we would hike a nearby trail. Unfortunately we soon realized the trail was steeper than we were comfortable hiking so we returned to the Visitor Center. The park map indicated that one could drive along the rim of the canyon and stop at various viewpoints. We decided to follow that guide and see what the views had to offer.

Our first stop was the Pulpit Rock Overlook. I think it was named that because the overlook was on top of a rock that sat away from the cliff. From this overlook visitors can look down into the canyon and see the Gunnison River more clearly running through the Black Canyon. One is also closer to some of the canyon walls and can see their structure more closely.

Our next stop was named Cross Fissures. The walk out to the viewpoint was much longer than the previous one. At this high elevation we got out of breath much more quickly than normal. We got our workout during the day even though the actual distances we walked weren’t that long.

From this viewpoint we could see the part of the canyon where the walls were not smooth but instead seemed to be made of slabs of rock that were forced together. It was a very different look for the canyon walls.

It was also on this viewpoint that I began to notice the wide variety of wildflowers along the trails. They were often pretty small, but there was a much larger variety of flowers than I would have anticipated. I took as many shots of them as I could get throughout our day.

Rock Point was our next stop. It was also a fairly long walk out to this viewpoint. It was on a finger like extension out into the Black Canyon. There were also large boulders along the pathway. We could see a number of different formations of rock from this point. By this time I would have to say that the canyon was starting to look the same, just from different angles. However, the walks out to the viewpoints continued to provide us good exercise.

We decided to skip the next viewpoint which was very close to the Rock Point Viewpoint and drove farther down the road. This took us to Chasm Viewpoint which was quite close to the road. Here we could see some of the sheer cliffs along the canyon walls. Information boards informed us that people did climb these walls. However, climbers need a permit and also need to have certain skills and experience to get a permit. No one was climbing any of the walls during our visit. However, I am sure it would be an interesting sight to experience.

We walked over to the next viewpoint, the Painted Wall. The name refers to the streaks of lighter colored rocks one can see throughout the cliff. These were apparently created when magma oozed into cracks in the rock and then dried. From here we could also look farther down into the canyon and see the Gunnison River again.

We could also see the distant snow-capped mountains through a valley in the hills. I think they were the San Juan Mountains which we had seen at other times during our trip.

We had two more stops around the rim. The first one was Cedar Point. A fairly long trail took us out to the viewpoint. Along the way the park has posted information signs about the plants. The signs were informative as to how the wildlife in the area consumed or used the plants. Much of this I had seen in some of the other places we had been on our trip, but a few facts were new to me such as a plant called Indian Rice grass which is a favorite of the bighorn sheep.

The view at this point was mostly seeing the extension of Black Canyon and the Gunnison River

Our final stop was appropriately called Sunset Point. It is quite close to the road and doesn’t require much of a walk to get there. The main site here is looking down the canyon farther than any of the other viewpoints. On a map it is clear how the canyon turns. This viewpoint looks down the longest section of the canyon and apparently off into the sunset.

The road continued on, but we didn’t. There was only one more location named High Point. From overheard conversations it didn’t seem to offer much. It was more of a trailhead for a hike to Warner Point. We decided to call it a day and head to our motel for the night and then find some dinner.

The views of Black Canyon of the Gunnison are really quite spectacular, but unless one has plans for hiking in the area, one day is sufficient to see it. It is possible to go to the other side of the Black Canyon and view it from that perspective. I had considered doing this. However, the next day we decided we had seen enough of the canyon. Going to the other side would not be worth the two hour drive. We ended up driving to another location, and it was well worth the trip. Join me next week to discover the final major Colorado location we explored. Expect more red rocks. See you then.