The snow from the previous day had continued through the night. As we drove up to the elevation of the South Rim, we saw some more snow falling. We were not sure what to expect for the day.
We knew the locals were happy to get precipitation because of the drought they are experiencing. We did not necessarily share those sentiments. The views were wonderful, even though they were not what we were expecting.
Our first hike on the south rim was to Warner Point, the highest point on the rim. As we began the hike, snow was everywhere. Then we realized the snowfall had stopped and the sun was coming out. Our trail was steep and a little wet.
We noticed as we were climbing, the temperature was climbing as well. Soon we had a new challenge, snow falling from trees onto our heads. By the time we reached the top of the trail, we could not see much local snow cover.
We could though now see the canyon at its full depth of 2700 feet.
This trail had brought us further west in the canyon. The top is a higher elevation, and the bottom is a lower elevation than where we were yesterday. The waters of the river at Sunset Point are the same though, flowing slowly in some places and quickly in places like this picture.
Maybe because we were higher up, the canyon walls appeared more severe. Even if they were not, the magnitude of the canyon can be overwhelming.
This section of the river is mostly west of what we saw the day before. The entire canyon is 48 miles long. We got to see maybe 14 miles of it between the two days we were there.
This cliff is called Painted Wall because of all the colors it contains. As a canvas it is impressive. As a cliff, it is huge, 2,200 feet of huge. There was an interesting sign at this location. It showed several large man made structures in comparison to the cliff. The Empire State Building without its antenna is less than half the height of this cliff. With its antenna included, it is still 750 feet shorter than the cliff.
This is a closeup of what we believe is the largest drop in the river through the canyon. It is about 250 feet in a quarter mile. While it would look huge from down below, from above it almost looks flat.
This location is called Devil’s Overlook. It is interesting to look out into the main canyon form one of the narrow side canyons.
We saw this bird two or three times as we hiked back to the road at Cross Fissures. The bird finally settled long enough for us to snap this quick picture.
The river at the bottom near Pulpit Rock were moving quickly.
At Gunnison Point, we took three pictures at different zoom levels to show the details of the canyon. The first picture is not zoomed at all. The second picture shows some of the rock slides and the plant life near the bottom. The final picture focuses on the speed of the water at this location in the canyon.
We descended into the canyon at Oak Flat. Here are two pictures of the rivers and the canyon that we took from a coupe of hundred feet below the rim.
After hiking down the canyon a little way, we drove to the eastern side of the south rim to drive down to the bottom of the canyon. It was a steep descent as the sign indicates. We had to learn how to use the low gears in our Highlander to attempt the descent. We made it to the bottom of the canyon where we discovered the aroma of hot brakes on a car.
We hiked along the Gunnison River for about a half a mile.
The river was relatively calm in this stretch. The water was very cold.
We enjoyed our stay at Black Canyon of the Gunnison.