Six Canyons

Diversity is what makes these United States of America great.

In late September 2024 we visited five different parks along or adjacent to the Colorado River. Previously we visited Grand Canyon National Park.

Each park had a unique canyon and is worthy of visit, although several were far from a beaten path.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

We traveled down the west side of Colorado to visit this Park and places further south. The park entrance is a couple of hours east of the main north-south highway as it passes by Grand Junction, Colorado.

The Black Canyon has different geology than other canyons we visited. Igneous rock —black Gneiss and pink Pegmatite— give it its distinctive colors and shapes. Steep walls form the narrow canyon (~1,000 feet wide and ~2,000 feet deep).

Grand Mesa National Forest

A neighbor recommended we visit this park during our stay near Grand Junction, Colorado.

The road to the top of Grand Mesa from the south east rises through a wooded glen. Dark green pine trees contrasted with the golden aspens. “There is gold in those hills,” I said as we approached this wonder.

The road over the mesa reaches about 10,300 feet before descending through a narrow winding sandstone canyon. Our campsite just east of Grand Mesa was at 4,763 feet.

We took no photographs as the road over Grand Mesa is narrow and winding with few places to pull over. Instead I focused on keeping our truck between the lines and making our day trip successful.

Colorado National Monument

John Otto wanted to call this Smith National Park so everyone named Smith might visit this park south east of Grand Junction, Colorado.

This park was formed by a major uplift and subsequent erosion resulting is several deep box canyons. The rim road closely follows the edge of these canyons which drop a thousand feet or more with few guardrails.

Canyonlands National Park

The Green River empties into the Colorado River in the middle of this park. Together they have eroded the terrain leaving towering “Needles,” “The Maze,” and “Islands in the Sky.” The exposed rock is mostly sedimentary in red and tan atop a dark igneous base.