Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, CO
2022 Parks Road Trip Diary: Days 7-9
At no other point in our entire road trip did we receive a fifteen minute lecture on how to not get lost on a hike. But apparently this is needed when you descend into the Black Canyon. (cue scary music)
Day 7: Driving to Black Canyon
The afternoon of the 27th, after the previous hike at Mesa Verde, we set off to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, a ~4 hour drive. This was probably the most scenic multi-hour drive we’ve ever done. I was not expecting it to be this pretty given that we were just trying to get from A to B.
This is a beautiful state. I can see why it’s popular to move here.
Day 8: Driving Tour of the Black Canyon + easy hikes
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is small for a national park: it’s less than 1/50th the size of Yellowstone. The south and north sides are separated by the canyon, and we only spent time on the south side.
The south side of the park has one main road with lots of pullouts for taking pictures of canyon views. For hiking, there are only a couple of short (< 4mi) easy / moderate hikes, plus three very hard hikes that the rangers try to convince you not to do (…more on that later).
The first day, we did the driving tour plus the easy / moderate hikes.
The canyon is black because it’s made mostly of gneiss, with layers of pinker pegmatite throughout. And yes, the joke “this canyon is gneiss” was made.
It was convenient to fill this day with small stops and short hikes because we had a more important goal that day: obtain a wilderness hiking permit to do one of the three hard hikes.
Each of the three routes is limited to around 15 hikers per day, limited by permits. To get one, you need to be at the visitor center at 3:30pm the day before. Realistically in order to ensure you’re among the first 15 you probably need to show up at 3:00pm.
So we managed to get one. It was the first time that we ever had a ranger spend ~15 minutes lecturing us on how to be safe on the trail and what to expect. I appreciated it! Though I’ve seen plenty of non-permit-controlled hikes that seemed more dangerous. 🤷‍♂️
Anyway, it was a pretty chill day so we had some extra time back at camp that evening.
Day 9: The Gunnison Route
The hard hike we got permits for was the Gunnison Route, the shortest and most popular of the three hard hikes. (The other two are described as masochistic.)
Given that a ranger spent 15 minutes telling us how not to get lost we took her advice seriously to start early, and woke up early enough to start the hike at 7:45am.
Of course there’s no way we’d cut out the important morning rituals:
This sign is at the start of the trail.
The basic idea of the hike (and all three hard hikes) is that you’re taking a very steep route down into the canyon, and then coming back up that same route. The hike is less than two miles in total but the elevation gain is 1800ft.
At the bottom, the canyon looks so beautiful! It feels cool to be surrounded by the towering walls. Fun fact from one of the park’s signs: “If New York’s Empire State Building stood on this canyon floor, it would only reach slightly more than halfway to the top of the cliff.”
Aaand back up. We were actually faster on the way up, though it was definitely much more physically exhausting.
Frankly the hike wasn’t that hard. But the challenge was really fun. In retrospect, I think most of the reason for the extra park ranger attention is that the trail is totally unmarked and easy to lose on the way back up unless you were paying close attention on the way down. (Which is a point they stressed.)
We were done by noon, and hopped in the car to head to our next destination: Great Sand Dunes!
post originally written 7/10, backdated to match reality