Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Aug 9, 2020

The Other Part of Colorado

I’ve spent a lot of time in Colorado. It’s easily one of the most impressive states for hiking and enjoying nature, and its relative proximity to Kansas is only a bonus. Generally, my visits to the state have focussed on the Rocky Mountain National Park area, or ski trips to the Denver area. I had a great opportunity this summer to spend some time in the equally popular destination of Colorado Springs, and further west in Gunnison County. For all their similarities, nestled on the East side of the Rocky Mountains, I am impressed with the variety offered by this wonderful state.

Mueller State Park

As they nearly all seem to, our trip began with a long drive. After a long day of driving and a night spent in the charming St. Francis, Kansas, we arrived at Colorado Springs and shortly thereafter Mueller State Park. Rising far above the city, we spent several nights camping at nearly 11,000 feet. Mueller offered a lot of options for activity, but also provided a quiet (sans the dogs barking at every stranger to come within 20 yards of the campsite!), secluded place for some much needed R&R.

When we weren’t grilling extravagant campground meals like philly cheesesteak sandwhiches and loaded breakfast burritos, we would hike the nearby Garden of the Gods or Outlook Ridge.

Garden of the Gods

Hidden within the suburbs of Manitou Springs, this exciting park featured lots of hiking trails and great vistas of the surrounding mountain peaks and local red rock fins.

The particular hike we choose gave us a complete tour of the park, hiking mostly along the perimeter in a large circle. The beginning sections of the hike features sweeping vistas of the fins, while the later sections included great views of Pikes Peak and the surrounding mountain range.

There were also lots of great flowers and sights along the way!

This was a pretty strenuous hike; not helped by the high temperature. We were pretty tired by the end, but I certainly enjoyed getting a chance to explore the park!

Outlook Ridge

While I don’t have many pictures from this hike, it was pleasant, and moderately strenuous. Hiking to the end of the loop gave us a great view of the opposite side of Pikes Peak. After navigating some treacherously steep terrain and spending some time near a small mountain pond, we were ready to head on towards the trip’s true destination: the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.


Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

After a long drive over Monarch pass and gorgeous trip through the Curecanti wilderness, we finally arrived at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Eager to experience what we had traveled so far to see, we set up camp and began touring the overlooks of the south rim.

These first glimpses into the canyon were very different from other places I’ve traveled. The Black Canyon has a rougher, meaner aura about it then the Grand Canyon, its most common point of comparison. It’s also more sheer and overwhelming than Bryce Canyon. The canyon so quickly falls away from your feet that it’s often difficult or impossible to pick out the Gunnison river far below. As you stand by the railing, the whole maw of the canyon seems to shrink away from you as your eyes try to distinguish each separate rock fixture. It’s more difficult to get your bearings at the edge of the Black Canyon than at the Grand Canyon. The darker shade of the rock makes each separate cliff less distinguishable.

After exploring the various overlooks of the south rim, we collected for a family photograph at the visitor center.

The Painted Wall

One of the most impressive overlooks on the south side was the painted wall. This epic monolith of rock is famous for its distinctive white patterning. I visited this spot many times over the course of the trip, in broad daylight and closer to sunset. All of the pictures look excellent.

HDR on the Rim

The Black Canyon is particularly difficult to photograph because of the extreme differences in lighting from top to bottom. Standing on the rim and photographing into the canyon is difficult because it’s so much darker than the surroundings, and photographing from the bottom of the canyon is difficult because the sky is so much brighter! One of my favorite techniques for dealing with differences in exposure like this is to use HDR photography. Often these photos are pretty tricky and turn out looking fake or altered, but every once in a while you can get a really great photograph! I think that the Black Canyon offered the perfect mix of circumstances to create some great HDR photos and I’m very happy with the results!

This photo was taken near the Sunset Point overlook on the south rim. It was difficult to get a photo without a bunch of people in it, I had to climb out on one of the ledges away from the overlook itself.

This image was taken on one of the short trails near the overlooks. It was a gorgeous sunset complete with an impressive moon rise.

The view of the canyon looking out from sunset point was a particular highlight of the trip. This is one of the spots in the canyon where you can see how far the river stretches! It’s difficult to get a grasp of the scale of the canyon, but this view comes the closest to mapping it out.

Of course, the painted wall offered many opportunities for great HDR photography as well!

Perhaps one of my favorite images from the entire trip, the cloud formations and sun just set this up for such a great exposure.

The River’s Edge

After several days in the park, my brother and I were finally ready for our hike to the bottom. The trail we choose was a straight shot from the south rim visitor center to the Gunnison river at the bottom of the canyon. There are no switchbacks, and the trail essentially cuts straight down the drop, not at an angle. The trail is just under a mile and drops nearly 1800 feet of elevation in that distance. There’s an 80 foot section augmented with a chain to assist in the down climb, and most complete complete the whole thing in around 2 hours. We planned to spend the night at the bottom, hiking a tent, some food, and water treatment to the bottom.

After obtaining our permit and checking in with the rangers, we were ready for the hike! We began early in the morning to help beat the heat, and were only the second group to leave the visitor center. After a short hike along the rim, we arrived at the point where the trail dove straight into the canyon. The first section of this hike was fairly wooded, so there weren’t many views of the canyon walls. The hike consisted of climbing over tree roots and rock steps, quickly working our way down and trying not to think about what it would be like coming back up the next day!

After a time hiking through the trees, we arrived at the chain section. While the section was very steep, I found that the easiest method for climbing it was to grip the chain, turn around, and rappel down like an alpine mountain climber. After we passed the chain section, the trees disapeared and we found ourselves on an open scree field. From these slopes we had some incredible views of the canyon walls opposite us. In this particular section of the canyon, there were three enormous towers opposing us from the opposite side of the river. AS it turned out, we’d be camping directly across from the base of these towers, and would have some great views of how massive the canyon truly is!

Eventually, we arrived at the campground. It consisted of a small patch of box elder trees, brush, dusty powdered rock and the banks of the Gunnison River.

Sometimes when I find myself in the midst of nature I don’t feel the need to take many pictures. I definitely felt this at the bottom of the canyon. I just wanted to spend the time I had there in the moment. It was a magical place, and I’m so greatful I got to spend some time there with my brother.

After a good night’s rest, we woke up and prepared the ultimate backpacking breakfast: cap’n crunch complete with powdered milk.

Fueled up and ready to go, we started the arduous climb back to the top. We were both pretty nervous about climbing back to the top an how exhausting it was going to be, but we were both surprised by how enjoyable the trip was. After a short while we began to get more used to the work. We lost the trail in the scree field and climbed a more difficult route than was truly necessary, but when we finally reached the top we were fortunate to have a stranger willing to take our victory picture!

This was a special hike for me, and I won’t forget it any time soon.

Warner Point

Black Canyon has a lot of significant history. It was the site of a massive early 20th century engineering project, the diversion of the Gunnison River to the Uncompaghre Valley. There are several important important point along the canyon, and we decided to explore one of these on our last day on the south rim: Warner Point.

This hike involved a long drive to the final lookout along the south rim road and a short trek along the rock fin to a wide overlook of the entire canyon.

The North Rim

After an extended time at the south rim, it was time to move on and check out the north side of the canyon. Much like the grand canyon, the south rim is the most popular and has the most infrastructure. The north rim is more primitive, but no less beautiful. Concerned about camping space and the lack of reservations at the north end’s only campground, we drove to Crawford State Park for the next few days. It was easy to drive from this campground to the north rim.

I really enjoyed our time at the north rim! We were the only people at any of the outlooks, and one of only three groups along the short hike we did to Inspiration Point.

The family near one of the north rim outlooks.

There was lots of interesting rock formations throughout the Canyon, but the shale formations on the north rim were especially neat!


Conclusion

Now that I’ve visited Black Canyon, I’ve been to all the national parks in Colorado! As I slowly whittle the list of remaining national parks down, I’m glad to get to explore such interesting and unique places.