Dinata Misovec

The mule deer were out in the morning.

The park visitor center is an adorable log cabin with a deck on two sides.

Our water tank has sprung a link, so we bought a gallon of water from the grocery store to make coffee when we are not in an RV park with a water hook-up. I topped off the water jug and then Andy filled his Bubba cup at the visitor center.

Of course, we watched the movie before going out to look in the canyon. The visitor center had a few exhibits and some rocks in cases.

Holy cow! Another first for me. Look at that log picnic table. I bet it weighs a ton.

Here is the view of the overlook from the back deck of the visitor center. You can see the split-rail fence where people are walking down to the overlook at the edge of the light brown bluff.

No, it is not the Grand Canyon, but this place is truly awesome. I looked up some statistics:

The Black Canyon is incredibly deep and sheer, with plunging cliffs, soaring buttresses and a thundering river. The following lists will help you understand the physical size of the canyon in comparison to other canyons and man-made structures.

Greatest Depth:

Warner Point Chasm View Gunnison Point

2,722 feet (829 m) 1,820 feet (555 m) 1,840 feet (561 m)

Narrowest Width:

At the rim (Chasm View) At the river (The Narrows)

1,100 feet (335 m) 40 feet (12 m)

Total Lenth of Black Canyon:

Total Length Length in National Park

48 miles (77 km) 14 miles (22.5 km)

The River:

Average descent over the entire length of canyon: 43 feet/mile (8 m/km)Greatest decent: Occurs in the park at Chasm View – 240 feet/mile (45 m/km)

There is some interesting history, HERE, if you are interested in the early explorations of the Gunnison.

We walked down the trail from the visitor center.

I got a nice shot of the visitor center sitting at the rim.

Out at the overlook, the Gunnison River is just a sparkly ribbon of water.

At the top, I noticed that the “bushes” were oaks.

Our wildlife sighting was the grasshopper-looking guy sitting in the sun on the trail.

From the top, you have to be right on it before seeing that there is a deep, steep, and rough canyon down there.

We moved on to the next overlook.

This viewpoint is at a wide section of the canyon. The narrowest is only forty feet wide.

We stopped and listened to a ranger talk about rock climbing. This high wall is one of the most popular spots for climbers in this park with dozens of marked climbs (for expert climbers only). I could not see the bottom.

After two overlooks, Andy said he could not walk anymore. We took the rim drive to the end of the road but did not get any more looks into the canyon. I did see the Painted Wall but did not get out of the RV for a better look. Here is one borrowed from the web.