@NP.Adventuring - Black Canyon

Black Canyon National Park Website

Stop #2 on our June 2021 road trip was to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP near Montrose CO. Living in Arizona and having visited the Grand Canyon multiple times we were expecting something similar, and it was, but it also very much wasn't. Black Canyon is a lot steeper than the Grand Canyon but not as wide or as deep. There was a lot more color here than the Grand Canyon too. The park is split in to two halves, the North Rim and the South Rim. We toured the South Rim. The first stop was to the Visitor's Center and there was a great lookout point a short hike down from the building. This gave us an idea of what we would be seeing for the day.

The park is basically just a big scenic loop. The South Rim drive is 7 miles long and has 12 overlooks. Some of these are short 100 yard hikes, others are miles long hikes. The road you drive out on is the same road you drive back on. It took us about 3 hours to hit all the overlooks we wanted.

There are some hikes you can do on the top of the rim and you are able to hike down to the river. If you're looking to hike to the river, beware, there are no trails, you just have to find your way down one of the "wilderness routes" and figure out which way works best for you. You need a wilderness permit to go down to the river and also plan on getting poison ivy. We opted not to do this, mainly because of the 2,700 foot descent that we would need to climb back up. No thanks!

This park rates at 4 out of 5 stars based on our standard criteria.

Rating Criteria: Fun, Scenic, Ease of Travel, Wildlife, Crowds

Pit Stop - On our way to the last park of our trip we made a pit stop in Silverton, CO looking for the man, the myth, the legend himself - Mr. Joe Dirt, but he wasn't there. So we took this really cool mine tour and got the best funnel cakes ever!

Here's a video of the mine tour.