Black Canyon at the Gunnison

The name alone sounds terrifyingly adventurous. Jon and I were making our way around the Rocky Mountains on our way to check out a job lead in Crested Butte, Colorado when this National Park caught my attention.

The Gunnison National Forest area is massive and beautiful, ranging from dense, pine covered forests to huge, gaping rock canyons.

The amazing drive to the North Rim of the canyon (which is supposed to be the most spectacular, and have a killer campsite right on the canyon’s rim) had unparallelled views.

We drove through Curecanti National Recreation Area and hit up highway 92, snaking through Crawford State Park and enjoying 2-3 hours of the most spectacular views of the Gunnison River. Let it be known that this stretch of road has many hairpin turns, high cliffs, sleep grades and overall panic but awe-inducing moments.

We snaked around the National Park and enjoyed views like this from the top:

It seemed like a while later we finally arrived at the North Rim of the Black Canyon at the Gunnison. There are only a handful of camping spots at this site, so arrive early if you want in! Luckily we secured our spot and set off on the easy-ish 1/3 mile hike around the chasm for a few views of the canyon at sunset.

The next morning we decided to hike a 3 mile loop from the base of camp to Exclamation Point, which offers some of the best views of the North Rim of the Canyon. This hike is moderate and can get a little hairy at times (slippery rock, cliff edges), but the views are spectacular!

Last but not least we did the crater rim drive which offers different perspectives and cool rock formations of the canyon. It’s definitely worth the 4 mile drive.

What’s one the prettier places you’ve been lately? Feel free to share!