Black Canyon Explosive Sunset
A little earlier in the afternoon, the Painted Wall (on the right of this image) may have had some red/orange hues to it from the direct sun, though given the clouds that was probably unlikely.
My teenage son, our dogs, and I were driving rapidly from North Dakota to San Diego, CA after Thanksgiving 2021, and didn't have a lot of time for photo stops on the trip, but I wanted to see this place. Fortunately, we arrived just ahead of sunset. Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a relatively new National Park, having been established in 1999, but the canyon you see is some of the oldest exposed rock that can be found on the planet, dating back nearly 2 billion years!
Pegmatite dikes create the horizontal lines you see in the Painted Wall, the tallest cliff in Colorado at 2,250'. The steepness of this gorge reduces sunlight in some parts to only 33 minutes per day, hence the name Black Canyon. From the viewpoints, it's pretty steep and having dogs with us (even on their 6' leashes) made me feel very uneasy. While the Canyon definitely deserves its name and has limited opportunity for exploration beyond the rim vista points, I felt extremely fortunate to visit on an evening where the sun and clouds conspired to put on a colorful light show to contrast the bleak gorge below.
Black Canyon Explosive Sunset
A little earlier in the afternoon, the Painted Wall (on the right of this image) may have had some red/orange hues to it from the direct sun, though given the clouds that was probably unlikely.
My teenage son, our dogs, and I were driving rapidly from North Dakota to San Diego, CA after Thanksgiving 2021, and didn't have a lot of time for photo stops on the trip, but I wanted to see this place. Fortunately, we arrived just ahead of sunset. Black Canyon of the Gunnison is a relatively new National Park, having been established in 1999, but the canyon you see is some of the oldest exposed rock that can be found on the planet, dating back nearly 2 billion years!
Pegmatite dikes create the horizontal lines you see in the Painted Wall, the tallest cliff in Colorado at 2,250'. The steepness of this gorge reduces sunlight in some parts to only 33 minutes per day, hence the name Black Canyon. From the viewpoints, it's pretty steep and having dogs with us (even on their 6' leashes) made me feel very uneasy. While the Canyon definitely deserves its name and has limited opportunity for exploration beyond the rim vista points, I felt extremely fortunate to visit on an evening where the sun and clouds conspired to put on a colorful light show to contrast the bleak gorge below.