Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, CO

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was formed slowly by water and stones scouring down through hard, dark crystalline rock. No other canyon in North America combines the narrow opening, sheer walls, and startling depths offered by this gorge. Upon arrival at the Park we stopped at the Visitor's Center before proceeding to the scenic drive.   Below are photos from our stops along the drive.

Gunnison Point is also where the visitor's center is located.  We arrived in the late afternoon and the visitor's center was very quiet.  After giving us a brief overview of the park, the Ranger reset the park video for us so we wouldn't have to wait 13 minutes for the next showing.  After the orientation video we ventured outside to take in the sites.






From Gunnison point we backtracked to Tomichi Point.  This is the first viewpoint from the Park's entrance on the South Rim.


Next we bypassed Gunnison Point and stopped at Rock Point.





Devil's Lookout was our next stop.




Then we stopped at Chasm View,




At 2000 feet, Painted Wall is the highest cliff in Colorado.  The patterns seen in the rock were created over a billion years ago when molten rock was squeezed into fractures and joints in the existing rock, then cooled and hardened.



Cedar Point


Dragon Point



Sunset View was our last stop before heading to our camp for the night.



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