WSPC01202

• File Number: 8210.761.09
• Description: Colorado River-Federal Agencies-US NPS-Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument
• State: CO
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Water Division: 5
• Date: 1/1/3000
• Title: General Management Plan 1-Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument and Curecanti National Recreation Area
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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Cliffs and Inner Canyon ROA

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The cliffs and inner canyon ROA represents
the core of what is the Black Canyon of the
Gunnison. Wallace Hansen wrote of the
characteristics of the canyon, "no other
canyon in North America combines the
depth, narrowness, sheerness, and somber
countenance of the Black Canyon of the
Gunnison." The dark walls of the canyon,
composed of metamorphic rocks of gneiss
and schist, helped inspire its name.

Small groves and individual trees and shrubs
cling tenaciously to nooks and ledges, while
finns and dikes of granitic rock add interest
and contrast to otherwise foreboding walls.
Islands of rock, long-ago separated from the
primary canyon walls, stand like sentries
above the Gunnison River.

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The river makes its presence known on a
continuing basis, evident by the constant
sights and sounds as it chums and roars
above, around, and below boulders, some the
size of small houses.

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Unlike at the cliff top, access here is
extremely difficult. The highest vertical cliff
in Colorado, at 2,280 feet, lies beneath
Serpent Point. This portion of the Painted
Wall, along with the Chasm Wall just
upstream, presents challenges to world-class
rock climbers. The East Portal Road, an
exception to the above, winds among the
cliff edges as a reminder of the development
and delivery of water to a thirsty
Uncompahgre Valley. The road was
instrumental in supporting the construction
of the Gunnison Tunnel and later Crystal
Dam, both upstream ofthe monument
boundary .

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Highlights of Exceptional Resources

Resources of special significance that occur
within the cliffs and inner canyon ROA
include:

. Fauna-eyries of the endangered peregrine
falcon and bald eagle are protected among the
sheer cliffs.

. Flora-The Black Canyon gilia, a rare plant of
the region, is known to grow among the vertical
cracks of Precambrian metamorphic rock. Seeps
and small hanging gardens cling to walls above
the river. Relict plant communities are
protected on and among islands of rock within
the confines of the inner canyon.

. Recreational opportunities-world-class
technical rock climbing is popular during the
late spring and early fall-wilderness adventure
and solitude.

. Cultural resources-the Gunnison Tunnel, just
upstream of the monument boundary, is listed as
a National Engineering Landmark. The
importance of the tunnel leading to water
development and settlement of the
Uncompahgre Valley cannot he overstated.

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