Day 46: Montrose to Black Canyon National Park

June 13, 2010

I left the motel at 9:15 and went back into town to buy a sink stopper. Then east on US 50, uphill. The sky was mostly overcast, temperature about 60F. Another cloudy rainy day...

Climbing begins in earnest 8 miles east of the motel at the turnoff to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. In 6 miles the road climbs 1800 feet to the park entrance. There were some periods of sunshine during the climb.

In the park my first stop at 2 PM was to get a campsite in the mostly empty campground. The campground has a water faucet with water trucked in 16 miles from Montrose. Then I rode 3 more miles to the visitor center and canyon overlooks. Approaching the visitor center is the only view looking upstream towards Gunnison.

Black Canyon, looking upstream towards Gunnison.

All the other views look downstream. A pretty good view can be found just a couple minutes walk from the visitor center.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The Gunnison river is nearly 2000 feet below.

I rode farther down the road to the other overlooks. I stopped at the ones where the overlook is less than 1/4 mile from the road.

Overcast sky with a sun beam shining through Black Canyon.

Black Canyon is extraordinarily narrow and deep. In some places the canyon is so narrow that I think I could throw a baseball to the other side, never mind the 2000 foot drop in between.

Here the canyon is so narrow that I feel like I can almost touch the other side.

Down below the Gunnison river is extraordinarily loud and turbulent. It's loud from 2000 feet up! It's supposed to be deafening down at the bottom. The river has many class 5 rapids and places where the water disappears under piles of giant fallen boulders. The Gunnison river has the steepest gradient of any river in North America.

The best view in this part of the park is of the Painted Wall. The marbled cliff is 1700 feet tall, the tallest cliff in Colorado. The remote north side of the park has even better canyon views judging from the pictures at the visitor center.

Painted Wall rises 1700 feet above the Gunnison river.

After the painted wall overlook I continued towards the end of the road under increasingly black skies. It started to rain heavily so I turned around at the next-to-last overlook, Sunset View.

Rain at Sunset View, Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

The ride back to the campground was not pleasant. Nonstop rain and sleet for 5 hilly miles before I got out of the storm cell. The temperature dropped to 43F before the rain stopped. Back at the campground I had a couple hours of hazy sunshine to dry off. It was a pleasant evening, but at 8300 feet elevation I know it will get cold.

I didn't quite make it to the end of the road but I saw the canyon from several vantage points. The weather just didn't cooperate and tomorrow isn't forecast to be any better. I spent only 4 hours exploring Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Judging from the mostly empty campground, I think most visitors don't stay long.

In the evening I had excellent reception of FM radio stations, but no AT&T cell service. It started raining again at 11 PM.

Distance: 30.4 mi. (49 km)

Climbing: 3772 ft. (1143 m)

Average Speed: 7.6 mph (12.2 km/h)

Maximum Speed: 34.5 mph (55 km/h)

Today's ride: 30 miles (48 km)
Total: 2,111 miles (3,397 km)

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