Black Canyon of the Gunnison - South Rim

Monday, July 2, 2018 - Part 2

We hadn't planned to go to the Black Canyon today, but it just happened that way.  Wow so many gloriously stunning views.

We are at the south rim entrance. Because we have a national park senior pass this cost us nothing. 

Tomichi Point was our first stop on the south rim tour.

This is the lookout point out the back of the Visitors Center. Dusty actually walked out there.

Above is taken from the Visitors Center lookout. Below is a closeup of the spire in the middle of the above picture. You can also see the river better. The Gunnison River is the river that runs all through the Black Canyon.

The following 4 pictures are taken from the Chasm View lookout.

Next we went to the Painted Wall lookout.

This wall rises 2300 feet above the river. The lighter colored rock was molten rock that flowed into the fractures and joints of the existing rock then cooled resulting in what you see.

Here you see oranges, browns and greens.

Next we went to Pulpit Rock lookout. 

Look carefully and you can see people standing on a rock formation. This formation was named after Rev. Mark T. Warner because he was a driving force to make this canyon a national park. Dusty thinks she read that the "pulpit" is where Rev. Warner also preached for a short period. Below is the view from the pulpit.

The next stop was Cross Fissures

Can you see the spaces between the rock formations? It almost looks like an optical illusion.

The "artistic" colors in the rock are in much of the Black Canyon. Stunning!

Above and below are the same rock formations at different times of the day. There is quite a distance between the foreground rock and the back rock wall.

This closeup of the above picture makes it a little easier to see the distance.

Tic zoomed to see the Gunnison River below.  Cool picture.

I found this arrow looking sediment interesting.

Next stop was Devils Overlook.

The river was visible for a long distance at this point.

I wondered if this formation was the Devil??

Below are several views from Cedar Point. The only reason we could think of for the name of this place was that we had to walk through many cedars to reach lookout.

More impressive views above and below.

Next stop was named Dragon Point. Not sure why the name.

We got someone to take our picture at Dragon Point.

Our last stop was Sunset View.  On a clear day you can see forever! It is a little hazy and wondered if it was smoke from the wildfire near Durango.

As we were leaving the main part of the park we drove through the campground there in Black Canyon park.  This mule deer says it is way too hot to be running around.

It's been a long but fabulous day!!