Doing the Drive Backwards

Monday Afternoon September 8, 2014
South Rim Campground
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Montrose, Colorado

 

This post begins at the end of yesterday’s hiking the Warner Trail hike at the end of the scenic drive..

 

The South Rim Drive runs 7 miles from Tomichi Point, between the campground and the visitor center, to High Point.  It has 12 overlooks; most are reached by walking a relatively short trail.  The Warner Trail parking where we are when we finish the trail is at High Point.   We will start back down the drive stopping at each overlook to see the canyon from every angle possible. 

Sure wish we had time to go over to the North Rim and do the same thing on the North Rim road although it is unpaved.  The drive from one rim to the other takes 1-1.5 hours.  Maybe next time we’ll stay in the campground there.

 

Before we get in the car to head back along the road we look around High point where Ruby is parked.  High Point is, along with Warner Point, where the canyon is deepest at 2660/2700 feet depending on who you ask.

 

 

 

It turns out that hiking opportunities in Black Canyon of the Gunnison are rather limited. We see numerous routes down into the canyon itself, but these are extremely strenuous routes that require special skills, equipment, and permits. Thus most hiking is limited to a few trails on the rims.  At least here on the South Rim.

If we were going to be here longer, we would certainly investigate the easiest and safest trail down into the canyon to see if we might be able to do it down and back in a day.

I have seen nothing about a path along this river so a loop hike is probably not possible.  You can get down to the river on the trails I mentioned and from East Portal Road just beyond the park entrance gate, but I don’t believe you can walk along the river.  It sure doesn’t look like it from here.  Maybe you could walk in the river when the dams have made the level so low.

 

 

 

After all the simply gorgeous things we have seen all over this country I don’t know what words to use to describe this amazing canyon, so steep, so deep, so different.   I hope the pictures will say what I cannot.

From High Point, we drive back one mile to MP 6.7 and stop at Sunset Point.  Not sure we would do 12 mile round trip drive from the campground for a sunset but I sure wish I’d looked more carefully at the map yesterday.  We could have stopped here on our way to the Full Moon hike.

As you can see, the views from here are stunning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next stop 7/10th of a mile down the road at MP 6.0 is Dragon Point.  This is the first in a series of stops to experience what is known as the Painted Wall. You can sure see how it got its name.

At 2300 feet The Painted Wall is the highest cliff in Colorado. As you can imagine rock climbers are all over it though not today for some reason. Or I don’t see them.  If the Empire State Building stood on the canyon floor, it would reach slightly more than halfway to the top of the cliff.

The patterns that inspired the name Painted Wall were created more than a billion years ago when molten rock was squeezed (intruded) into fissures and joints in existing rock, then cooled and hardened. These patterns are 3 dimensional. If you were to slice off a section of the cliff, an entirely different pattern would be revealed.

 

 

 

 

I really can’t believe I’m here.  How did I get so lucky?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We take forever at each of these stops and we run out of time so our last stop for today is the Cedar Point trail.  It  is just over a half mile hike out to the second of 3 dramatic viewpoints for the Painted Wall. 

 

 

 

 

Along the way, there are trailside signs explaining various plant and animal life.  Luckily we are already familiar with nearly all of it.  You really do learn so much in national parks.  Just look at the color of this stone.

 

 

 

 

At the overlook which marks the end of the trail we again meet the painted wall.   It is all I can do to wrap my eyes around it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It reminds me of marble.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we’ll take up where we left off today and finish the drive.  There are still 7 overlooks  some with short trails beginning at MP 5.3, the Painted Wall Overlook.  It’s a lot to take in and I’m actually glad we are splitting it into 2 days.  Even 3 days might have been better but we have other plans to go down to the river for our last day here.