This morning we left Gunnison Colorado for Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Similar to The Grand Canyon, this park has a North Rim and a South Rim. We were lucky to approach the North Rim from Gunnison. The views on County Route 92 are spectacular.
The photo below is not from the national park. It still shows the beauty of the Gunnison River as it flows through the canyon.
Another aspect of using County Road 92 was the mountainous terrain. We saw numerous versions of this sign on our way up and down this road. It is a different kind of exciting to go around a curve and see nothing but mountains and air in front of you. Sometimes there are no guard rails and very little shoulder. It keeps you focused on your driving.
We safely reached Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The weather was almost perfect. It was just a little cloudier that we would have liked. But it did not affect our first hike at all.
Even with great weather, it is hard to capture this canyon in a photograph. The depths of the canyon and the closeness of the south rim are too grand to capture.
Occasionally you can see with a camera the rugged beauty of this place. The name of our first hike was Exclamation Point. This name contains numerous meanings. First, if you look at a map of the area, the trail near the far end of the hike has a small loop. Since you hike fairly straight down the middle of the approach, ending with a small loop makes the trail look like an exclamation point. Second, the entire trail has so many great views, you make comments such as beautiful, amazing, terrific, and wonderful.
Even with all that, the best comes at the very end. The trees grow out almost to the end of the point. Marlene was leading the way as we approached the point. I was only a step or two behind her, so I did not see the wonder that caused her to exclaim OOOH WOW!!!! when she first saw the canyon from top to bottom all in one view. Here is the Exclamation Point View!
The canyon is deeper than it is wide at this point. It is about 1800 feet down, but only about 1200 to 1500 feet wide. The impact is indescribable.
The return hike was not as exciting as the hike out, but we did see the length of our hike at the end. Marlene is pointing from the start of the trail to Exclamation Point.
Exclamation Point was as far west as we went on the North Rim. As we neared the ranger station at the end of our first trail, the few snow flakes we had seen began to turn to snow flurries.
From there we headed east on the Rim Road to see the sights. If your stomach can handle leaning over the rail. Chasm View will reward you with gorgeous (!!) views of the rushing water below. This photo is zoomed down some to emphasize the water.
The second photo without the zoom shows the depth of the canyon.
After we finished the short walk on Chasm View, the flurries began to transition to snow fall. When we were at the Narrows where the canyon is 40 feet wide at the bottom and 1,100 feet wide at the top, it was getting hard to see the other side. That only increased the feeling that you could almost touch the other side. It also began to feel like the clouds were closing in on us.
Those large white spots in the picture are not photo defects, it is the snow falling very close to the camera. Before you you can see why this point is called Balanced Rock. There is a small rock that is stable on the large boulder, but the space around it at the bottom makes it look like it should move.
At Balanced Rock you get another glimpse into the Canyon. While we were there, the snow really began to fall. We were really glad we had packed layers of clothing for cold weather. Look at how close she got to the ledge.
At Big Islands we took a picture of the islands created by large vertical cracks in the rocks.
We looked down into the canyon once again. The clouds and the snow began to block our view. In this photo you can see a cascade at the bottom of the canyon.
Here you can see the canyon river flows during all types of weather and seasons. It has flowed through here for many years.
We finally reached the eastern end of the North Rim at Kneeling Camel. If only that camel could tell us more about the canyon and the history and geology it has seen.
As beautiful as the canyon is, there was also tremendous flora and fauna to behold. Here is a quick sample of some of the life we saw on the trail before the snow started falling.
When we finally began the journey back out of the park, we wondered if we had taken a few minutes too long. The miles of dirt road we had come in on looked and felt different as we travelled the newly snow covered path.
We made it down the mountain to our hotel. The day reinforced the beauty of creation, and the dangers inherent in the variability of the weather.