The fascinating geologic story of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado

[@marsharose2301]

Just saw this! I live in Gunnison so I really appreciate seeing this discussion. Thanks loads!

[@louiscervantez1639]

Excellent. Didn’t know all thatthanks

[@Anne5440_]

All my life, I heard from my father about the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. He said it was the most amazing place he ever saw. He saw it in the late 1930s. In 03, my daughter, grandson, and I made a whirlwind trip to the Grand Canyon. We did as many national parks and monuments as we could in the circle trip we planned. I insisted on doing the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Seeing it meant so much to me. Thank you for sharing this geology. I find the processes that cut deep canyons interesting. It seems each river has its own story.

[@WayneTheSeine]

I have been there several times and I am always in awe. We watched some climbers scaling the verticle wall and hanging under a parapit for the night. It started sleeting during the night and early morning so we immediately went back to the overlook to see if they were ok but it seems they had climbed out during the night. The mere sight of someone on those smooth, sheer walls was terrifying to me. When standing on a viewing platform I always had a death grip on the railing? I wanted to fish the Gunnison but was too old, it is for the young and tough. Such a beutiful place. For a fantastic breakfast check out the W Cafe.

[@muzikhed]

Pegmatite rock sitting on the surface way up on top ! Awesome uplifting event, Wow.

[@StarBitt97]

@ShawnWillsey - I finally found this video of yours about Colorado. We have been to the Black Canyon a couple of times and will go back in a couple of months. About 2 hours from our house! I love seeing your explanation!

[@drhyshek]

I’m from the Pittsburgh area and the Black Canyon is my favorite place to go out West. I believe it’s at 11,000 feet so if you’re not used to altitude, be prepared to feel slightly short of breath, lightheaded and slower walking. The views are worth it though. Just spectacular.

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

The upper elevations at the top of the canyon are about 8800 feet asl.

[@drhyshek]

@@toughenupfluffy7294 You're right. I was way off.

[@StarBitt97]

8800 ft. can still take some getting used to if you are a flatlander….we moved from Dallas (900 or so ft. In Altitude) to Westcliffe, CO which is just under 8,000 ft. in altitude and for the first month or two we were sucking wind. And we have had several guests get altitude sickness, so we remind people to lower intake of caffeine, drink lots of water, and we keep the cans of Boost - oxygen - around to take with us driving or hiking. Also taking ginger supplements helps with nausea. Crazy, right?

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

The river carved this amazing canyon in only about 1.4 million years. Pretty quick in geologic terms.

[@Laserblade]

I didn't realize those are the same basement rocks seen in the bottom of the Grand Canyon! I found a wonderful example of glacial erosion there, it must have had the glacier riding on it for an extended period, heavily corragated and smooth. Thank you Professor!

[@3xHermes]

Can't wait for you to video a Rafting trip down the canyon!

[@Ferda1964]

I always tend to think this type of ancient rock canyon was created chiefly by a violent earth quake.Great show.

[@brianmccusker3852]

Thanks Shawn, for me a photo of location on a map helps me follow along. It helps me plan a future vacation to visit your sites. I really appreciate the content because in my old age I'm learning about geology via U-tube. Cheers

[@shawnwillsey]

I appreciate you response. I will start adding GPS coordinates to the videos so folks can look on Google Earth or go there themselves.

[@CFEF44AB1399978B0011]

If you come back to colorado, you should do videos on pike's peak, garden of the gods, or the red rocks ampatheter, and the royal gorge. Could be pretty cool. Also the San Louise valley and Sangres would be cool to cover, IE the Spanish peaks.

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

About 2 or 3 miles downstream of where Dr. Willsey is, there is a place called the Narrows, where the river is only 40 feet across and the canyon walls shoot straight up vertically over 2600 feet. The only way past it is through it, that is, by riding the river over a big waterfall. There are rocks that have fallen inside the river gorge the size of a two-story duplex house. The oldest rocks in the bottom are Paleoproterozoic, ~1700 million years old, with cross-cutting pegmatitic dikes of Mesoproterozoic age, ~1400 million years old (Shawn says 1300, but what's 100 million years among friends? The more accurate number is 1380 million years) The deformations and metamorphic features are remnants of the Yavapai (1680 ma) and Mazatzal (1380 ma) orogenies, when two separate microcontinents collided with the North America, Wyoming province craton.

[@brianmccusker3852]

not too far from Montrose; Grand Junction is a lot further away. I like your videos, but would you include a map location??

[@shawnwillsey]

Hey, thanks for watching and learning with me. I was in Delta, CO picking up a raft and frame when I recorded these. Would GPS coordinates of where I recorded the video be helpful? I could include these in the video description. Let me know your thoughts.

[@drhyshek]

Google?

[@Josh-Hunt]

You ought to go to all the national parks in the west.

[@shawnwillsey]

To make videos? Working on it. Look for Yellowstone videos this fall and winter.

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

Here's a great vid of the river: kzbin.info/www/bejne/raSUqn5ogZ15i5I