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jasper
9 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2012 : 5:33 PM
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We went down to the bouldery banks of the Gunnison river in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in southwestern Colorado on October 21st of last year and have been waiting for a bit of time to post a quick report. The Black Canyon, while not the deepest canyon(2700-something ft at most), is very, very steep (the river too!) and narrow (40ft at the bottom at its most narrow). It is essentially a giant playground for rock geeks, serious climbers, kayakers, and everybody else.
The painted wall is the highlight of the park and can be seen from many of the numerous viewpoints on the north and south rims. An enticing big wall, it is one of the highest cliffs in the US at 2250 ft, with gorgeous streaking bands of pink pegmatite.
 
The 'route' down is a ~1932ft/588m descent over 2mi/3.2km, over a mixture of boulders, nasty scree and poison ivy (thankfully it wasn't much of an issue with the cold autumn weather). After a couple minutes in the juniper/ponderosa pine on the northern rim of the canyon we began our descent, as the riparian vegetation took over.
Route-finding is a little tricky at first, with all prospective possibilities seeming equally annoying in different ways. Pick your way down the gully and it eventually funnels you into the only sensible(possible?) route after a couple hundred feet of descent, a few cairns here and there. There were a couple of fun little down-climbs (10-12 ft) near the beginning of the route, the rest was some steep hiking with a bit of scrambling, rarely with any exposure.
We took a quick lunch break at the bottom next to the river and then back up we went. There are a few nice campsites maybe 20 minutes downstream from our lunch spot. Our ascent was much quicker than the way down. A wonderful, crisp fall day and some fantastic scenery, very distinct from the mountains and desert of the region. There are a bunch more routes to the bottom too, of varying difficulty. Some more pics:
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over the hills and far away
Canada
708 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2012 : 7:07 PM
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| Some dramatic looking scenery down there. |
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Campbell River, BC
Canada
759 Posts |
Posted - 05/27/2012 : 7:46 PM
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| A fitting name for a place like that. Scenery is quite impressive. |
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 Utah's canyon trekking,deck chair packing desert explorer who dreams of visiting Canada someday
3988 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2012 : 01:22 AM
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I agree, very fitting name. Poison Ivy? shudder shudder.... I don't miss getting that crap. Nine days coming and nine days going always for me. and a prednizone shot. My nephew got it so much back at the farm in Penna that he finally became desensitized to it and didn't get it any more. yuck. Poison Ivy aside, what an amazing place!
Great pictures, too. I really like how the river cuts like a knife edge into the gorge. Nothing lazy about that river, I imagine. Friend was in Wyoming and came upon a funny sign in the Grand Tetons. "This trail Impassible" by the park service. Under neath it someone wrote "not even jackassable!" too funny....
Great trip. thanks. |
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jasper
9 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2012 : 10:59 AM
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Yowwwwzzzaaa! RM that sounds like a bit of an inconvenience!  We suited up completely for the intended battle with the posion ivy (thankfully Mr. Freeze wasn't around too...), no exposed skin below the neck, even took some biking gloves for the ivy creeping beneath ledges, just incase. I've only had to deal with underbrush dominated by stinging nettles, unpleasant enough not to warrant returning the same way I came, but that pales in comparison with the ivy - and literally with its rash too |
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SonOfaB*&ch Draw, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, CO
