Have you ever heard of this one? We hadn’t until we were planning this trip. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is in western Colorado and was formed by the Gunnison River (the same one we went rafting down). The “Black” part of the name comes from the minimal amount of sunlight the canyon receives, with some areas getting only minutes of sunlight per day.
Black Canyon of the Gunnison is easy to see in just one day, especially because it isn’t crowded like many of the other National Parks in the summer. We stayed in the town of Montrose which allowed us to explore the South rim of the canyon. As usual, we took a pic at the sign, went to the Visitor Center, got a map and the boys got their Junior Ranger booklets to complete. We stopped at a couple of overlooks first to get a glimpse of the canyon. It’s breathtaking!
There aren’t a ton of hikes at this Park, so we chose Oak Flat Loop which allowed us to go below the rim. It’s great looking at the canyon from above, but it’s really nice to be able to get down into the canyon a bit more. This trail connects to a longer trail that goes all the way down to the river, but you need a special permit to do that.
We found some great areas with amazing views that allowed us to look into the canyon.
This trail was really quiet; we only saw two other groups while we were hiking.
Poor guy… he slept 12 hours the night before and he still looks exhausted! He’s not the only one, this trip is tiring for all of us!
We came to this colorful wall and Trent couldn’t help but climb it!
Dax loves anything sparkly and/or gold, so when he found this rock he was on a mission to find more!
We definitely enjoyed Oak Flat Loop Trail; it was the perfect way to see the canyon from a different vantage point. At the end of this 2-mile, strenuous-rated, 500-foot elevation change hike, Dax said, “wow, that was a short hike”. I guess 4 weeks of hiking will do that to a kid! Maybe we should have gotten that special permit to hike all the way down to the river!
After our hike, we hopped into the RV to check out more of the overlooks. Simply stunning!
These two goofballs finished the day by earning another Junior Ranger badge!
I love that we get to experience all of these fun places together as a family… dog included!
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is really special – don’t pass it up because you’ve never heard of it… now you have!
