Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Thursday, 29 September - Friday, 30 September, 2022
Gunnison River at the bottom of the canyon.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is at the very eastern edge of the magnificent Colorado Plateau, at the edge of the massive Rocky Mountains. The canyon walls are some of the oldest rocks we've ever seen--Precambrian, or about 1.7 billion years old. They are from the same era as the deepest rocks exposed in the Grand Canyon, far, far down in the Inner Gorge there. Around 1.4 billion years ago, granite intruded into and metamorphosed the older and darker gneiss here. Beautiful pink crystallized pegmatite veins developed in joints in the canyon. The dark rock walls here have a tint of pink. In relatively geologically modern times, 28 to 10 million years ago, the Gunnison River, pushed back and forth by volcanic eruptions in the West Elk and San Juan ranges, cut through the canyon. The river exposed this very unusual rock, creating this geologically fascinating place.
[Pages of Stone, Chronic & Chronic, 2004, and Roadside Geology of Colorado, Chronic, 1980]
We posed with the monument sign for our 31st national park together.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is so lightly visited that we could have camped without a reservation. But I like to have at least one night in a motel between nights of camping, to shower under higher pressure and, literally, to recharge batteries. We could have stayed one night in Montrose, CO and then camped two nights in the park. But Montrose is only about half an hour outside of the park, and the idea of spending three nights in the same place was appealing. I was able to get an excellent deal on the 1st Interstate Motel. While we were able to take high pressure showers on Saturday, there was no hot water, so I think our camp shower was actually better. The room was the ugliest in the entire motel, on the second floor, with the owners' residence across the outdoor hallway from it, so hardly any light was admitted through the single window. It might as well have been nighttime in the middle of the day there. The electricity and bandwidth, and the bed, were better than we would have had in a campsite.
Eric photographed a park poster in the window of the Visitor Center.
This part of Colorado is a strange kind of Swing State place. We saw an REI across from a Walmart, and a Sprouts next to a Hobby Lobby.
We saw this pawn shop...
... directly across the street from this art gallery.
The same business that had this sign on one side...
... had this on the other side.
I actually like both of these sentiments and don't find them incongruous, and it is unfortunate that memories of the horrors of September, 2001 have been so politically misused. All of this was quite different from anything we typically see in coastal California.
Day 13 distance hiked: 3.2 km/2.0 mi, but with an elevation loss and gain of 549 m/1800 feet
Day 14 distance hiked: 3.4 km/2.1 mi
Day 15 distance hiked: 0 km/0 mi
Day 16 distance hiked: 0 km/0 mi
Day 13 distance driven: 76 km/47 mi, cumulative 3,368 km/2,093 mi
Day 14 distance driven: 137 km/85 mi, cumulative 3,505 km/2,178 mi
Day 15 distance driven: 933 km/580 mi, cumulative 4,439 km/2,758 mi
Day 16 distance driven: 850 km/528 mi, cumulative 5,288 km/3,286 mi
Day 13 caches found: 0
Day 14 caches found: 4
Day 15 caches found: 0
Day 16 caches found: 0
On to Hike to the bottom of the canyon.