Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Who will gainsay that the parks contain the highest potentialities of national pride, national contentment, and national health? A visit inspires love of country; begets contentment; engenders pride of possession; contains the antidote for national restlessness…. He is a better citizen with a keener appreciation of the privilege of living here who has toured the national parks.
Stephen T. Mather, first Director of the National Park Service, and - you’re never going to believe this if you have read the rest of my blog - the person credited with coming up with the label “20-Mule Team Borax” when he worked for the Pacific Coast Borax Company. I wonder if he was one of the bigwigs who named Dantes View in Death Valley
So in case you haven’t noticed, whenever Bob and I travel, we have been trying to visit National Parks along the way. So far, we have visited nineteen parks together as well as numerous National Monuments, National Seashores, National Lakeshores, National Grasslands, etc. So far, I think the Black Canyon of the Gunnison has been the most spectacular. Last year I would have said Canyonlands. We’ll have to go back just to compare.
We drove out to Colorado and met my brother Philip and his wife Amy in a campground on the South Rim. You might recognize Philip from his YouTube Channel - Phil Hatton Makes Stuff (which often also stars Amy). His videos span building a Chesapeake Light Craft Teardrop Trailer to Fixing a House to wood turning. It is worth checking out in spite of the dad jokes!
According to one of the members of our party who shall remain unnamed, but whose name might begin with “P,” this is the most terrifying national park. I personally would have chosen Glacier because of the grizzly bears, but this is not the best park for anyone afraid of heights.
We were hiking along and Philip pointed and said, “This is a photogenic tree.” It is.
The Gunnison River carved the canyon down through uplifted 1.7 billion year old Precambrian metamorphic rock. This NPS page and this USGS page explain it really well, including how the Painted Wall (photo at end of post) was formed.
Although many of the canyon walls are very dark, it is called the Black Canyon because the canyon walls are so steep in places that they are often in shadow. As you can see in some of the photos, the walls aren’t actually black, but look dark. In the steepest area, sunlight only reaches the bottom for 33 minutes a day.
Many of the following photos are several photos merged together in Lightroom. I took them vertically and tried to overlap a bit to attempt to get a feel for the canyon depth. It didn’t always work. Click to enlarge:
Some photos on the edge:
Bob out on the Edge
Bob out on the edge
Amy out on the edge
I’m leaning over the edge with my camera
Philip kind of close to the edge. Bob (leaning against the barrier) in the background
Random squirrel not on the edge, but fairly high up
The flowers were blooming while we were there:
Arrowleaf Balsamroot (
Balsamorhiza sagittata
) - Comparison between f1.6 and f16
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison was certified an International Dark Sky Park in 2015 and we happened to be there during the few days that month where the galactic center was visible, so of course I had to drag myself out of bed to take photos. I think it was worth it:
I do want to point out that my bear phobia kept me from actually moving out of the campsite to get better photos of the galactic center… To each his or her own phobia.
The Painted Wall is the tallest cliff in Colorado. It is 2,250 feet (682 m) from river to rim. This is 242 feet taller than the Empire State Building. It is really difficult to portray the immensity in a photograph:
The Painted Wall. This is five photos taken vertically and merged in Adobe Lightroom.
A very nice young woman offered to take our photograph. She managed to cut off our legs, but at least she got the Painted Wall in!
This was probably the closest Philip got to the edge…