I have visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park twice: first in the June 2007 and then early September 2009. It's a relatively unknown national park that was not crowded on either of my visits. It's more of a narrow gorge than a canyon. The Gunnison River used to be a wild powerful river that carved this gorge. Now three dams on the river tame it considerably. It's not even close to being as deep as the Grand Canyon, its only a half mile or so at its deepest point, and most of the visible rock formations are marbleized black and white igneous and metamorphic rock. Some of the visible rock is over 500 million years old. Other deeper rock is over 1.5 billion years old, making it some of the oldest rock on our earth. There were beautiful wildflowers along the rim in June 2007. This past fall there was early fall foliage.
This a picture from September 2009. Note the turning of leaves along the rim.
It's called the "The Black Canyon" for a reason. Note the Gunnison River in the photo
Note the marbleized striations running vertically up the canyon walls
Another view of the deep canyon with the river visible at the bottom.
This June 2007 photo shows another view of the canyon walls.
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