The Canyon Less Traveled
The Black Canyon Of The Gunnison A Beautiful Destination For Driving, Biking, Sure-Footed Hikers
Story and photos by Reid Neureiter
For the GPHN
Colorado’s least-visited National Park, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, offers challenging hiking and spectacular and unique vistas, including views of Colorado’s tallest vertical cliff, the famous “Painted Wall” which drops 2,250 feet from the north rim to the banks of the Gunnison River.
Compared to Rocky Mountain National Park, which is only 70 miles from Denver and received 4.43 million visitors in 2021, the Black Canyon is remote. It’s 260 miles southwest of Denver, 80 miles southeast of Grand Junction and 15 miles east from the largest nearby town of Montrose. As a result, the Black Canyon had only 308,910 visitors in 2021 — making it an intriguing and remote option for a three-day weekend excursion from Denver.
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison was established as a national monument in 1933, and was redesignated a national park in 1999. But the Black Canyon itself is the result of millions of years of geologic activity. According to the National Park Service, 70 million years ago the “Gunnison Uplift” raised to high elevation 1.8 billion-year old metamorphic rock composed of schist and gneiss. 30 million years ago volcanos deposited ash on either side of the uplift, and for the past 15 million years, the fast-flowing Gunnison River has been cutting through the volcanic and metamorphic rock carving the deep canyon we see today. It is called the “Black Canyon” because it is so deep and narrow, some portions of the canyon get only a few minutes of direct sunlight a day and its walls are often in shadow.
The most popular activity at the Black Canyon National Park is driving the seven-mile-long south rim road, which travels along the rim, offering pullouts and short walks to 12 separate viewing platforms that all give different perspectives of the river far below and the Painted Wall on the canyon’s facing north side. The Painted Wall itself appears almost like a Jackson Pollack abstract splatter painting, with the sedimentary schist and gneiss crisscrossing the otherwise dark wall with different contrasting colors. If you take your bicycles along, this excellent road provides a nice 14-mile roundtrip excursion from the Park Visitor Center.
But the real challenge of the Black Canyon is not merely enjoying the view from the rim, but descending into the inner canyon itself. An expedition into the canyon requires some homework, and fitness. Everything below the canyon rim is designated wilderness and requires a permit for entry.
There are three hiking routes to the bottom of the canyon, and only 15 permits per day are issued for each route. The route that begins near the Visitor Center, called the “Gunnison Route” is alleged to be the easiest, but even this so-called “easy” route involves scrambling (and sliding) down an extraordinarily steep and rocky unmarked track, so steep that in one section the Park Service has installed an 80-foot length of chain to facilitate descending and climbing back up. The path down is only 1.5 miles, but it drops 1,800 feet in that distance.
The Park Service warns ominously, “Only individuals in excellent physical condition should attempt these routes; they are not meant for small children. Hikers are expected to find their own way and be prepared for self-rescue.”
Despite the arduous journey, the payoff at the bottom on the bank of the Gunnison River is worth the effort. On Memorial Day weekend 2021, two relatively fit 50-somethings were able to make the climb down and back up (with an hour-long picnic at the bottom) in five and one-half hours. The isolation at the bottom of the canyon and the ability to look up the 2,000 walls is awe-inspiring. Permits do allow camping at the bottom of the canyon, so there is the option of taking in a tent and spending the night.
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is harder to get to than many of the Front Range or Summit or Grand County attractions. But if you are looking to explore a new part of Colorado, a visit there is an excellent way to spend a long weekend. For more information, go to nps.gov/blca/index.htm.