Sunset over the Painted Wall above the Gunnison River in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado. The Painted Wall is the tallest sheer cliff in Colorado at 2,250 vertical feet (690 m). The Precambrian gneiss and schist that make up the majority of the steep walls of the Black Canyon formed 1.7 billion years ago, though the canyon itself started being carved about 2-3 million years ago. (Source)
On Tuesday I spent a pleasant evening along the North Rim of the Black Canyon. It’s hard for me to believe, but it’s been nine years since I’ve been to the North Rim! Last time I was there, in October 2007, I backpacked down S.O.B. Draw and camped on a broad sandy beach along the river right below the Painted Wall, just past where you can see the river in the photo above. I had quite a scare in the middle of the night when a falling rock crashed down on the beach right next to me!
The first sound of rockfall woke me up instantly and in the darkness I immediately knew it was happening somewhere above me. To make matters worse I was camping in a bivy sack and I thrashed around frantically trying to get out of it so I could run closer to some bigger boulders that might help shelter me. Meanwhile I was still hearing the rock crashing closer and closer down towards me, so I gave up trying to shed the bivy bag and just potato-sack hopped towards the boulders. The rock impacted the beach with a dull but loud thud. I spent the rest of the night huddled against the biggest boulder around, too afraid to venture out in the open of the beach again! In the morning I found the rock where it impacted the sand about ten feet from where I’d been sleeping.
On this last trip I was actually planning to spend one night down there again, but as I studied the campsites from the rim and considered how they are positioned right in the gunbarrel of 2,000 feet sheer vertical cliffs, I thought, no, I’ve learned that lesson before!
Spectacular.
Awesome photo Jack.
and a good story to go along. That’s an excellent lesson to learn, and good to know if you are camping next to sheer cliffs.
Hey Jack, great shot of Painted! Perfect lighting. Ive never gone down SOB, just the standard route and Warner route, been meaning to. Looking forward to winter, I always head up the road at least a couple times, nothing like the canyon at sunrise when its 10 below or so 😉