Park of the Month
By Eamon Decker
Black Canyon of the Gunnison
National Park
Montrose County, Colorado
The southwest is scattered with canyons. If you go for a drive, you'll find yourself at a vista overlooking a canyon, a river bridge upstream from a canyon, hundreds of road signs displaying canyon names, or the road will simply end at the rim of a canyon. You could say that since we have so many canyons, none of them are special. You would be wrong. Each canyon is a unique, beautiful landscape. True, some are more breathtaking than others, but Black Canyon of the Gunnison does not fall short. The steep, jagged rock walls of the canyon close in on you when walking or rafting the narrow canyon.
The canyon is so narrow and rough that there are no signs of human occupation in the canyon itself, only on the rims. The park is located along the canyon, which is 2,000 feet deep, and only 40 feet wide at the narrowest spot. The Gunnison River runs through the 35-mile long canyon after flowing through the Blue Mesa and Morrow Point Reservoirs.
53 Southwest Highways & Fields
The park has many recreational activities, especially for thrill seekers.
Rock Climbing on the steep and crumbly canyon walls is limited to expert climbers only, and can be an exhilarating or dizzying experience.
There are several hiking trails on both the north and south rims, most of which are flat to moderately steep.
More adventurous folks can hike down to the inner canyon. There are no maintained or marked trails in the canyon, and the routes are very rough and strenuous. For people in good physical condition, the inner canyon makes for a great wilderness trek, but beware of the poison ivy, growing over 5 feet tall. It is almost impossible to avoid, and is really bad on certain routes, such as the appropriately named S.O.B. Draw. Although most paths are only a mile long, the 2,000 foot drop and rocky terrain makes the descent take 1.5 hours, and the climb back up takes 2 hours. Black Canyon is the 5th steepest mountain descent in North America; 4 1/2 times steeper than