The Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP is a dramatic example of the force of erosion by rivers. The Gunnison River carved this narrow canyon as the mountains rose; it was forced to dig deeper to keep flowing. Before the dams upstream were built, the massive spring runoff from melting snow along the Continental Divide could move a lot of rock which ate away at the river bed.

Pictures just cannot capture to scale of this canyon. It is over 1800' deep at this point and 1100' wide; the rim's altitude is about 8000'. I was amazed to be able to hear the rushing water far below as I took these. The entire canyon is 53 miles long but only 14 miles of it are in the Park. It is so narrow at the bottom (40' in places) through the Park that even Gen. Palmer and his engineers gave up building a railroad through it!

Most of the trails and lookout points were still inaccessible due to snow so these pictures are less spectacular than I wanted. One lookout point is literally hanging on the edge of the canyon! For more details about this Park, go to their website.