The kids went back to school today, and my goal is to catch up on blog posts--I'm giving myself 15 minutes a day, so we will see how far I get.
This summer we visited all four of the Colorado national parks, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison was actually our last stop. We'd planned to camp there that night, but it was hot and we were tired, and we had been camping for...a week? Two weeks? at that point. And we were five hours from my sister's house, so we decided to just get back in the car and drive rather than setting up camp again.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is VERY spectacular, but to be honest there is not a ton to do there unless you are planning to rock climb or white water kayak or something. The hike that I would be interested in doing (the Gunnison Route) is NOT something you can do with kids.
The canyon really is spectacular--the average drop is 43 feet per mile, and the steepest point (at Chasm View) it's 240 feet per mile (in comparison, the drop in the Grand Canyon is 7.5 feet per mile).
If I recall correctly, the angle on this particular wall is 93 degrees. Some parts of the canyon receive only half an hour of sunlight a day, hence the moniker "Black" Canyon.
Spectacular blue skies over the Painted Wall--gosh this was SO beautiful.
We had planned to go here last year, but the road down to the river was closed for repairs, so we postponed a year so we could drive down to the river, and holy cow, that road is insane. But it's gorgeous down there!!
Posts
