Black Canyon of the Gunnison
IUCN category II (national park)
Location	Montrose County, Colorado, USA
Nearest city	Montrose
Coordinates	38°34′0″N 107°43′0″W / 38.566667°N 107.716667°W / 38.566667; -107.716667Coordinates: 38°34′0″N 107°43′0″W / 38.566667°N 107.716667°W / 38.566667; -107.716667
Area	30,750 acres (12,440 ha)[1]
Established	October 21, 1999
Visitors	168,336 (in 2011)[2]
Governing body	National Park Service

Satellite image of the park and Curecanti National Recreation Area

Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is a United States National Park located in western Colorado, and managed by the National Park Service. There are two entrances to the park; the more-developed south rim entrance is located 15 miles (24 km) east of Montrose, while the north rim entrance is located 11 miles (18 km) south of Crawford and is closed in the winter. The park contains 12 miles (19 km) of the 48-mile (77 km) long canyon of the Gunnison river. The national park itself contains the deepest and most dramatic section of the canyon, but the canyon continues upstream into the Curecanti National Recreation Area and downstream into the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area.

Geology[link]

The Gunnison River drops an average of 34 feet per mile (5 m/km) through the entire canyon, making the 5th steepest mountain descents in North America. In comparison, the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon drops an average of 7.5 feet per mile (1.4 m/km). The greatest descent of the Gunnison River occurs in the park at Chasm View dropping 240 feet per mile (45 m/km).^[3] The Black Canyon is so named on account of its steepness which makes it difficult for sunlight to penetrate very far down the canyon. As a result, the canyon walls are most often in shadow, causing the rocky walls to appear black. At its narrowest point the canyon is only 40 feet (12 m) across at the river.^[3][4]

The extreme steepness and depth of the Black Canyon formed as the result of several geologic processes acting together. The Gunnison River is primarily responsible for carving the canyon, though several other geologic events had to occur in order to form the canyon as it is seen today.^[5]

Overview Black Canyon with Gunnison River

Precambrian[link]

The Precambrian gneiss and schist that makes up the majority of the steep walls of the black canyon formed 1.7 billion years ago during a metamorphic period brought on by the collision of ancient volcanic island arcs with the southern end of what is present-day Wyoming. The lighter-colored pegmatite dikes that can be seen crosscutting the basement rocks formed during this period as well.^[6]

Cretaceous - Tertiary[link]

The entire area underwent uplift during the Laramide orogeny between 70 and 40 million years ago which was also part of the Gunnison Uplift. This raised the Precambrian gneisses and schists that make up the canyon walls. During the Tertiary from 26 to 35 million years ago large episodes of volcanism occurred in the area immediately surrounding the present day Black Canyon. The West Elk Mountains, La Sal Mountains, Henry Mountains, and Abajo Mountains all contributed to burying the area in several thousand feet of volcanic ash and debris.^[7]

The modern Gunnison River set its course 15 million years ago as the run-off from the nearby La Sal and West Elk Mountains and the Sawatch Range began carving through the relatively soft volcanic deposits.^[7]

Painted Wall on the north side of the canyon. It is the highest sheer cliff in Colorado at 2250 feet (685 m). Lighter-colored pegmatite dikes are clearly visible.

Quaternary[link]

With the Gunnison River’s course set, a broad uplift in the area from 2 to 3 million years ago caused the river to cut down through the softer volcanic deposits. Eventually the river reached the Precambrian rocks of the Gunnison Uplift. Since the river was unable to change its course, it began scouring through the extremely hard metamorphic rocks of the Gunnison Uplift. The river’s flow was much larger than currently, with much higher levels of turbidity. As a result the river dug down through the Precambrian gneiss and schist at the rate of 1-inch (25 mm) every 100 years. The extreme hardness of the metamorphic rock along with the relative quickness with which the river carved through them created the steep walls that can be seen today.^[7]

A number of feeder canyons running into the Black Canyon slope in the wrong direction for water to flow into the canyon. It is believed that less-entrenched streams in the region have shifted to a more north-flowing drainage pattern in response to a change in the tilt of the surrounding terrain. The west-flowing Gunnison, however, was essentially trapped in the hard Precambrian rock of the Black Canyon and could not change its course.^[8]

History[link]

The Ute Indians had known the canyon to exist for a long time before the first Europeans saw it. By the time the United States gained independence in 1776, two Spanish expeditions had passed by the canyons. In the 1800s, the numerous fur trappers searching for beaver pelts would have known of the canyon's existence but they left no written record.

In 1881, the Denver and Rio Grande had reached Gunnison from Denver. It pushed its narrow gauge line through the canyon in 1882, taking a year to build the last mile. In March, 1883, it completed its connection to Salt Lake City and for a brief period the canyon was on the main line of a transcontinental railroad system. By 1890, the alternate route through Glenwood Springs had been completed and the route through the Black Canyon, being more difficult to operate, lost importance for through trains. The route was finally abandoned in 1955.^[9]

While the railroad and others came first to the canyon as a path to Utah and the mines to the southwest, later visitors came to see the canyon as an opportunity for recreation and personal enjoyment.^[10] The area was established as a U.S. National Monument on March 2, 1933 and made into a National Park on October 21, 1999.^[11]

Biology[link]

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park contains a wide variety of flora and fauna. Some common plants that are native to the park include aspen, Ponderosa pine, sagebrush, desert mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius), Utah juniper, gambel oak (scrub oak) and single-leaf ash.^[12] Wildlife in the park include coyotes, elk, magpies, eagles, and the mule deer. In addition the canyon is the home of a number of resident birds including the Great Horned Owl, the American dipper and Steller's Jay and migratory birds such as the Mountain Bluebird, the Peregrine Falcon, the White-throated Swift and the Canyon Wren.^[13]

Attractions[link]

The main attraction of the park is the scenic drive along the south rim. At the south rim there are two campgrounds and several miles (kilometers) of hiking and nature trails. The north rim is accessible by automobile, though it is quite remote, and has a small, primitive campground. The river can be accessed by automobile or by foot. Automobiles can access the river via the East Portal Road at the south rim, this road has a 16% grade, and is prohibited to vehicles over 22 feet (7 m) in length. The river can also be accessed by steep, unmaintained trails called routes or draws on the north and south rim. These take between two hours to hike down and two to four hours to hike back up depending on the which route is taken. A free back country permit is required for all inner canyon use. Most routes have campsites at the river.

The Black Canyon is a center for rock climbing, in a style known as traditional climbing. Most of the climbs are difficult and are only done by advanced climbers.^[14]

Rafting opportunities exist in the region, but the run through the park itself is a difficult technical run for only the best kayakers. There are several impassible stretches of water requiring long, sometimes dangerous portages to get around. The remaining rapids are class III - V, and are for expert river runners only.^[15] Downstream, in the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area, the river is somewhat easier, though still very remote and for experienced runners only, with rapids that are Class III - IV.^[16][17]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

• Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (official site)
• Geology and photo gallery of Black Canyon
• Chicago Tribune - A slash in the mesa
• Frank Erickson (1923-1996), Black Canyon of the Gunnison, a symphonic poem which has been performed on the rim of the canyon

v t e National parks of the United States Acadia American Samoa Arches Badlands Big Bend Biscayne Black Canyon of the Gunnison Bryce Canyon Canyonlands Capitol Reef Carlsbad Caverns Channel Islands Congaree Crater Lake Cuyahoga Valley Death Valley Denali Dry Tortugas Everglades Gates of the Arctic Glacier Glacier Bay Grand Canyon Grand Teton Great Basin Great Sand Dunes Great Smoky Mountains Guadalupe Mountains Haleakalā Hawaiʻi Volcanoes Hot Springs Isle Royale Joshua Tree Katmai Kenai Fjords Kings Canyon Kobuk Valley Lake Clark Lassen Volcanic Mammoth Cave Mesa Verde Mount Rainier North Cascades Olympic Petrified Forest Redwood Rocky Mountain Saguaro Sequoia Shenandoah Theodore Roosevelt Virgin Islands Voyageurs Wind Cave Wrangell–St. Elias Yellowstone Yosemite Zion                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     List of national parks of the United States (by elevation)

An elephant safari through the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary in West Bengal, India

The Teide National Park in Tenerife (Spain).

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently (for example, see Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in the United States^[1]), an international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its World Commission on Protected Areas, has defined National Parks as its category II type of protected areas. While ideas for this type of national park had been suggested previously, the United States established the first such one, Yellowstone National Park, in 1872. The largest national park in the world meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which was established in 1974. According to the IUCN, there were 6,555 national parks worldwide in 2006 that meet its criteria.^[2]

Definitions[link]

Landsat 7 image of Kavir National Park, Iran.

In 1969 the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) declared a national park to be a relatively large area with particular defining characteristics.^[3] A national park was deemed to be a place

• with one or several ecosystems not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific, educative and recreative interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty.
• the highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate exploitation or occupation as soon as possible in the whole area and to effectively enforce the respect of ecological, geomorphological, or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment.
• visitors are allowed to enter, under special conditions, for inspirational, educative, cultural, and recreative purposes.

In 1971 these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a national park. These include:

• a minimum size of 1,000 hectares within zones in which protection of nature takes precedence
• statutory legal protection
• a budget and staff sufficient to provide sufficient effective protection
• prohibition of exploitation of natural resources (including the development of dams) qualified by such activities as sport, fishing, the need for management, facilities, etc.

While national parks are generally understood to be administered by national governments (hence the name), in Australia national parks are run by state governments and predate the Federation of Australia.

History[link]

Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

In 1835, the English poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a^[4]

sort of national property, in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy.

The painter George Catlin, in his travels through the American West, wrote during the 1830s that the Native Americans in the United States might be preserved^[5]

(by some great protecting policy of government) ...in a magnificent park ...A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty!

The first effort by any government to set aside such protected lands was in the United States, on April 20, 1832, when President Andrew Jackson signed legislation that the 22nd United States Congress had enacted to set aside four sections of land around what is now Hot Springs, Arkansas to protect the natural, thermal springs and adjoining mountainsides for the future disposal of the US government.^[6][7] It was known as the Hot Springs Reservation. However no legal authority was established and federal control of the area was not clearly established until 1877.^[6]

The next effort by any government to set aside such protected lands was, again, in the United States, when President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on June 30, 1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias (later becoming the Yosemite National Park) to the state of California:^[8]

.... the said State shall accept this grant upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation; shall be inalienable for all time; .... — 38th United States Congress, Session 1, 1864

Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, California, USA

In 1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the world's first truly national park.^[9] When news of the natural wonders of the Yellowstone were first promulgated, the land was part of a federally governed territory. Unlike Yosemite, there was no state government that could assume stewardship of the land, so the federal government took on direct responsibility for the park, the official first national park of the United States. It took the combined effort and interest of conservationists, politicians and especially businesses—namely, the Northern Pacific Railroad, whose route through Montana would greatly benefit by the creation of this new tourist attraction—to ensure the passage of that landmark enabling legislation by the United States Congress to create Yellowstone National Park. Theodore Roosevelt, already an active campaigner and so influential as good stump speakers were highly necessary in the pre-telecommunications era, was highly influential in convincing fellow Republicans and big business to back the bill.

The United States in 1872. When Yellowstone was established, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho were territories, not states. For this reason, the federal government had to assume responsibility for the land, hence the creation of the national park.

American Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner, has written:^[10]

National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.

Even with the creation of Yellowstone, Yosemite, and nearly 37 other national parks and monuments, another 44 years passed before an agency was created in the United States to administer these units in a comprehensive way — the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). Businessman Stephen Mather and his journalist partner Robert Sterling Yard pushed hardest for the creation of the NPS, writing then-Secretary of the Interior Franklin Knight Lane about such a need and spearheading a large publicity campaign for their movement. Lane invited Mather to come to Washington, DC to work with him to draft and see passage of the National Park Service Organic Act, which the 64th United States Congress enacted and which President Woodrow Wilson signed into law on August 25, 1916. Of the 397 sites managed by the National Park Service of the United States, only 58 carry the designation of National Park.

Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA Yellowstone was the first national park in the world.

Following the idea established in Yellowstone there soon followed parks in other nations. In Australia, the Royal National Park was established just south of Sydney in 1879, becoming the world's second official national park. Rocky Mountain National Park became Canada's first national park in 1885. New Zealand established Tongariro National Park in 1887. In Europe the first national parks were a set of nine parks in Sweden in 1909; Europe has some 359 national parks as of 2010.^{[citation needed]} Africa's first national park was established in 1925 when Albert I of Belgium designated an area of what is now Democratic Republic of Congo centred around the Virunga Mountains as the Albert National Park (since renamed Virunga National Park). In 1973, Mount Kilimanjaro was classified as a National Park and was opened to public access in 1977.^[11] In 1926, the government of South Africa designated Kruger National Park as the nation's first national park. After World War II, national parks were founded all over the world. The Vanoise National Park in the Alps was the first French national park, created in 1963 after public mobilization against a touristic project.

See also[link]

	Environment portal
	Ecology portal
	Earth sciences portal
	Sustainable development portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: National parks

• Protected Planet – World Database of Protected Areas
• UNESCO — Man and the Biosphere Programme (Biosphere Reserves)
• World Heritage Sites
• A-Z of Areas of Biodiversity Importance: National Parks
• UN Protected Areas database
• EUROPARC Federation — Europe's protected areas
• European National Parks Centre (ENPC)
• National Park of China
• National Parks Worldwide
• Vietnam National Parks
• Pictures of European national parks