Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Top Attractions

South Rim Drive

The View from Dragon Point on the South Rim Drive

This paved 7 mile long stretch from Tomichi Point to High Point is the park's main road.The drive follows the canyon's level South Rim; 12 overlooks are accessible from the road, some by shortish gravel trails. Several short hikes onto the rim also begin roadside.

Allow two or three hours for the drive, a little longer if you take all of the short trails.

The dramatic drive offers plenty of topside angles on the canyon and river. The first overlook, Tomichi Point, allows access to the Rim Rock Trail, which runs north-south for about a mile between the campground and the visitor center. This trail gives you fine views of the vertiginous walls of the eastern part of the canyon and the glinting ribbon of water sluicing down its middle. You walk through a scrubby forest of Gambel oaks and sagebrush, studded with pinyons and junipers.

Make a 2-mile loop by following the Uplands Trail across the road. Continue up through scrub oak forest before walking past the Visitor Center and rejoining the Rim Rock Trail. At the Visitor Center, exhibits on the park's geology, history, flora, and fauna will help get you started. Just outside the Visitor Center you can take the moderately straightforward Oak Flat Trail, which makes a loop of about 2 miles and which will bring you 300 ft below the canyon rim. Head west, then turn right at the River Access sign and dip into a grove of aspens. At the next junction, turn left and wind through a thicket of scrub oak to an outcrop with a good view. Circle back through a forest of aspen and Douglas-fir.

The aptly named Pulpit Rock offers a terrific long view of the river knifing its way through the canyon.

The Painted Wall on the South Rim Drive

A walk out to Chasm View takes you to within about 1,100 feet of the North Rim, on the opposite side of the canyon. At this point, the canyon's 1,800-foot depth exceeds its width, and it looks extremely narrow. But the narrowness is a result of the river's precipitous angle and its high volume. As you peer down into the depths, keep in mind that this section of canyon encompasses the Cunnison's greatest rate of descent, crashing down 240 ft within a mile.

The road now bends southwest. Several pulloffs provide views of the magnificent Painted Wall, a 2,250-foot sheer cliff decorated with stripes and flourishes of pink and white crystalline pegmatite, an extrusion of magma that seeped into cracks and hardened. Take the Cedar Point Nature Trail, an easy 2/3-mile out-and-back, to views of the wall, the river, and islands of stone rising from the canyon depths.

Drive on to High Point, the end of the road and, at 8,289 feet, the highest point on the rim. From here it is a dizzying 2,689-foot drop to the river. You can take a 1.5-mile round-trip walk out to Warner Point, the Westernmost part of the National Park, which will take you about an hour there and back.

North Rim Drive

Looking straight down!

While it is only 1,100 feet from one side of the canyon to the other, it's an 80 miles drive between the two sides. On the North Rim, you'll find yourself in a remote and awesome wilderness where the canyon walls plunge nearly vertically and you'll find yourlself with less company, and less facilities to match. There is around 6 miles of unpaved road to negotiate to the ranger station, it's maintained, and in generally good condition, but still rather bumpy in places, dusty in summer and unplowed in winter. (If you do the full drive you'll be driving about 20 miles of gravel roads in all)

Turn off Colorado 92 at North Rim Road and follow it to the end. Turn right and drive to the ranger station (which is only open in the Summer), where one of the finest hikes in the park begins. The North Vista Trail wanders in and out of scrub forest along the rim for 1.5 miles. Detour at Exclamation Point for a jaw-dropping look into the canyon's depths. Turn back around, or continue 2 more miles to trail's end on Green Mountain. This difficult section climbs from 7,702 feet to 8,563 feet. Here stirring panoramas take in Grand Mesa and the Uncompahgre Plateau to the west, the West Elk Mountains to the north, and, in the south, the San Juans.

Once back at the ranger station, drive about a mile south and get out for the short Chasm View Nature Trail, that meanders through a pinyon-juniper forest and comes out at two stunning overlooks. White-throated swifts and violet-green swallows dart from cliffside nests. The southern 4 miles of the drive zigzag along the canyon's rim. There are six overlooks in all. At Balanced Rock View and Kneeling Camel View, near the end of the drive, steep unmarked trails wind down side canyons to the river.

East Portal Road.

The only way to access the Cunnison River from the park by car is via this paved route, which drops approximately 2,000 ft down to the water in only 5 mi, giving it a steep, 16% grade. (Vehicles longer than 22 ft are not allowed on the road; if you're towing a trailer,you can unhitch it at a parking area near the entrance to South Rim campground.)

The bottom is actually in the adjacent Curecanti National Recreation Area. Allow an hour for a trip to the bottom and back... and test your brakes at the top, it's a steep descent!

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