BC o’ the G

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison is stunning. One of our newer National Parks, it was established in 1999. Prior to that, it had been a National Monument (the difference, as explained by Ranger Esther Weeks, is that a Monument is established by a president, a Park by Congress.) The two rims are quite different from each other. The North Rim gets a lot more sun, so the snow melts more quickly. The South Rim stays snow covered longer, so has a lot more erosion from freezing and thawing, creating a sheer cliff face of 2,000 feet for the North Rim and a somewhat more gentle drop off with some vegetation on the South Rim. The area of the canyon was formed first by a lot of tectonic uplifting. The river, because of its very steep slope, is exceptionally powerful, and cuts through the hard rock. There was also considerable molten lava in the area, leading to some vertical rock formations similar in style to Devil’s Tower. Add that to the fact that river rock has been found on the top of the canyon, and it must really be a geologist’s playground. Another interesting feature is a tunnel built in the 1900’s to bring water from the Gunnison River to the valley on the other side of the mountains. Can’t imagine how they did it. It’s been proclaimed an historical engineering feat.