The Black Canyon was featured in an article about “overlooked” NPs. Sunset’s discussion of the Gunnison Route (trail to the base of Black Canyon), stated “it made the Grand Canyon’s Bright Angel Trail feel like an interstate highway”.
So, we were expecting what
we found – a park with limited infrastructure, the ruggedness a reflection of
the style of the Black Canyon. From the
rim to the Gunnison River is almost straight down along major sections of the
12 miles of the gorge within the National Park.
It is much more narrow than the Grand Canyon, with the sides as close as
about 1000 feet.
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| Snow-capped Rockies in background |
Also, the river flows at a rapid rate due to the elevation changes. The Gunnison is dropping an average of 34 feet/mile compared to 7.5 feet/mile along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Even from the rim, about 2000 feet above the river, you can hear the roar of the rapids. Just as the canyon sides are not designed for inexperienced climbers/hikers, the water is only for those well trained in significant whitewater.
The rangers at the Visitors Center were well versed and helpful, and the center had a typically good video introduction to the park and other useful information. The name Black Canyon was based on how little sunlight actually makes it to the base of the canyon – an average of 23 minutes/day. Having good sunlight on the rocks for photography can be very rare. This was especially true for our visit due to continual Pacific storm-fronts passing through almost daily.
We started with a short
trail along the rim, and then drove along the rim to various overlooks; several
of these required hikes up to 1.5 mi to reach the actual rim. The last trail we
took, to Warner Point, had several hills along the way, with an average
elevation of about 8300 feet. We found
adjusting to the higher elevations a bit difficult at times, but make the round
trip hike grateful we had done it. The
views were superb.
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