Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Last week we spent 3 days camping at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  No other canyon in North America combines the steepness, narrowness, depth and eerie darkness of this canyon. 

Another view of the canyon, to which I can't do justice with my IPhone camera. You really need to rise at 0-dark thirty and catch the sun rising on these canyon walls.

This is the Painted Wall. At 2,300 feet it's the highest canyon wall in Colorado. The lighter diagonal streaks of rock were formed when molten  rock was intruded between layers of non-molten rock. You can barely see the Gunnison River, which is far below in the lower left part of the photo.

One evening we tried to reach a place on the south rim called "Sunset Point" but didn't make it quite in time to capture the sunset on the walls of the canyon. Shoot. 

This mule deer and her cute fawn frequented our campsite, which was fine except that one day they ate our sun shower, which we'd left hanging on a tree. There are lots of instructions around to avoid leaving out food, drink, bug spray, scented tissues, cosmetics etc. to avoid attracting bears and mule deer, and we were being really careful to follow instructions. But no place mentioned plain water in a container. Oh well, live and learn.

Here we are at the bottom of the canyon.  See caption below...

We drove down the 6+ miles to the bottom of the canyon, where there is now a dam to control the flow of water. The narrow road has a 16% grade the whole way. You have to drive it in low gear to avoid burning out your brakes.


I have to leave the spot I'm picking up wifi, so will leave you here for now. More to come as soon as I can get to another place with connectivity - the bane of my existence.