B & D's USA Hideout: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, CO

"Our surroundings were of the wildest possible description. The roar of the water

...was constantly in our ears, and the walls of the canyon, towering half mile in the height above us, were seemingly vertical. Occasionally a rock would fall from one side or the other, with a roar and crash, exploding like a ton of dynamite when it struck bottom, making us think our last day had come."

- Abraham Lincoln Fellows 1901

can.yon n [from Latin callis footpath] : a deep, narrow valley with precipitous sides, often with a stream flowing through it.

Brian and I arrived at the last national park in Colorado we are visiting this trip, Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It was cold and snowing. The visitor's center had already closed but we drove through the park and stopped at the pull-offs to get a glimpse of the abyss. It was so steep I was nervous to be near the edge. It was so beautiful and dark and seemingly unknown.

We found a nice pull-through at the campground with a 30amp connection. We cooked dinner and played cribbage through the evening while rain and snow showers passed over.

In the morning, we walked to the visitor's center and asked the ranger how hard it would be to hike to the base. I had read there was an 80' chain in one section, which sounded formidable and intimidating to me. But, she said it was a good adventure and very do-able with caution. We said " when in Rome.." and grabbed our walking sticks. Black Canyon is one of three canyons in the National Park Service system. Second is, of course, the Grand Canyon and the third canyon is in Yosemite. Though the Black Canyon is not the deepest or longest, it is known to be the steepest. In just 48 miles in the canyon the Gunnison River loses more elevation than the 1,500 mile Mississippi River does from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The river descends an average of 96 feet per mile in the park and drops 480 feet in one two-mile stretch. Fast, debris-laden water carving hard rock made the canyon walls so steep.

It took us an hour and half to get down the 1 mile path to the Gunnison River. The chain wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The challenge was more the loose rock and diversions to the trail that could throw us off on the way back. We left a wooden arrow or small rock pile wherever there was one needed. We picked a grassy spot by the river and had lunch. I tried to capture our point of view with my camera but I needed a lens as wide as the canyon. We hoofed it out in about the same time in, which was just in time because it started snowing slightly again.

I was compelled to put all of the following photos of Black Canyon in black and white...