Peering over the edge of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison from one of its numerous overlooks, it’s natural to feel weak in the knees. The dark canyon walls streaked with once-molten magma fall sharply down the river below, as if someone used a knife to slice a 48-mile slit in the earth’s crust. At its deepest point, the canyon measures a sheer 2,722 feet.
The breathtaking geologic feature is the result of millions of years spent underwater, rocked by volcanic activity and shaped by erosion. While the rocks are old, the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Montrose is one of the country’s youngest national parks, celebrating its 25th anniversary this month.
On Oct. 21, 1999, legislators and Western Slope residents gathered on the south rim for a dedication ceremony to welcome what at the time was Colorado’s third national park – its first in almost 85 years. The event included speeches, musical performances, and a cake decorated with the Bureau of Land Management and National Park service symbols, according to The Denver Post’s reporting at the time.
Indeed, there was much to celebrate. Then-President Bill Clinton, who signed the legislation adding the local attraction into the national park fold, noted in a statement that the designation had come to fruition after “more than a decade of hard work by the people of the Western Slope of Colorado to bring to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison the recognition it deserves.”
That effort was marked by several failed attempts, disputes among federal agencies about the prospective park’s boundaries, and concerns from locals about land use. Eventually, everyone came together under a shared mission: to protect the canyon and surrounding wilderness from development so it may continue to inspire awe for generations to come.
This wasn’t the first time that officials had worked to protect the area. The Black Canyon was designated a national monument in 1933, quite literally putting it on the map. Leaders in Montrose had a vested interest in elevating the area to national park status to attract international tourists and boost the economy in this otherwise remote section of Colorado. But conservation was always core to the mission.
“It’s much better protected now,” said Sheridan Steele, who served as the area’s superintendent from 1996 to 2003 and helped architect the national park plan. “You go there and it’s a lovely wilderness experience along the rim and it wouldn’t be otherwise.”
A deep history of conservation and compromise
Early expeditions to the Black Canyon focused on exploring the river, as pioneers settling the West sought to expand railroads and bring water from the Gunnison River to nearby homesteads. According to Paul Zaenger, who worked in Black Canyon’s education division for 28 years, one of the first people to recognize the canyon’s recreational value was Mark Warner.
Warner, who moved to Colorado in 1917 to become pastor at the Montrose Presbyterian Church, was instrumental in building the first road up to the south rim. Construction took place in the 1920s and the thoroughfare opened on Labor Day in 1930 with a public picnic and much fanfare at the overlook now called the Chasm View. In a celebratory gesture, a commissioner’s daughter threw a bottle of grape juice in the canyon, Zaenger said.
“That’s not something we would recommend doing today,” he laughed.
Once the road was built, the public could more easily enjoy the Black Canyon. But the threat of development seemed imminent, whether by residential settlers or logging and mining companies. So Warner led the effort to establish the area as a national monument, collaborating with state elected officials who brought the initiative to the White House.
Former President Herbert Hoover used his last days in office to designate the Black Canyon of the Gunnison as a national monument on March 2, 1933.
Tiney Ricciardi, The Denver Post
The Painted Wall (right) is the most well known landmark at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It is 2,250 feet from river to rim — more than twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower and 1,000 feet taller than New York City’s Empire State Building. (Tiney Ricciardi, The Denver Post)
Over the following decades, Zaenger said there were ongoing conversations about converting the Black Canyon to a national park, but they never materialized because the politics weren’t right or because federal agencies couldn’t agree on where to put the park’s boundaries. Private landowners were also in the mix, bringing the risk of suburban development to the viewshed.
In one specific instance, plans to expand the boundary suggested incorporating acreage downstream, in what’s now known as the Gunnison Gorge. That concerned the Bureau of Land Management, which supervised the area, as well as locals who wanted to use the land for different types of recreation typically prohibited in national parks.
“People wanted to still be able to ride their off-highway vehicles, their dirt bikes, their ATVs, their 4×4 vehicles recreationally,” said Edd Franz, the manager of the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. “So there was some pushback.”
When Steele began his tenure as superintendent of both the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument and the nearby Curecanti National Recreation Area, national park conversations were still percolating. But Steele knew he’d have to be creative to bring the project to the finish line.
Instead of expanding the proposed park’s boundary upstream or downstream, Steele set his sights on the Sanburg Ranch, a 2,500-acre property abutting the south rim. The ranch’s cattle often found their way onto the road within the monument’s boundary, but what worried him more than the herds was the prospect of residential construction.
“I could just see subdivisions all along the South Rim Road — houses and streetlights and driveways and people mowing their lawns,” Steele said. “It really would have changed the entire experience from visiting a wilderness-type canyon to more of a suburban park, and that would have just been awful.”
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Steele and the National Conservation Fund negotiated an easement with the property owners, who also gave the fund the right of first refusal should they ever decide to sell the land. (They did, and the ranch officially became part of the park in 2017.) He also worked with BLM to incorporate 4,400 acres of the Gunnison Gorge into the prospective national park.
With a compromise in place, Steele began coordinating with U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Rep. Scott McInnis, who co-sponsored the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area Act of 1999, which eventually made its way to President Clinton’s desk. (The two congressmen, along with Sen. Wayne Allard, also helped designate the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in 2004.)
“It means a great deal because it’s getting more difficult to get that done, as more people are opposed to any special designation for national land,” Campbell said. “I don’t even know if I could get that done now.”
The future of the national park
The 1999 legislation extols the tens of thousands of wilderness acres it protects for both their recreation value and opportunities for solitude. Indeed, those who visit get more privacy than at other, more popular destinations.
The Black Canyon is the state’s least visited national park, welcoming about 357,000 people in 2023 who drove, hiked and camped along its two rims.
Rock climbers come to scale the steep canyon walls, while anglers drive down to the Gunnison River to enjoy its gold-medal fishing waters. The park is open 24 hours a day, enabling people to take advantage of its Dark Sky Park status, and travelers who visit both rims also get a tour of numerous Western Slope towns since they have to drive around the Black Canyon to reach the other side.
The national park has paid off for local economies over the last quarter century. A spokesperson for the city of Montrose said tourists come from around the world to visit the canyon, filling hotel rooms and restaurants. For many years, the town’s slogan was “Look Deeper,” a nod to the Black Canyon.
The National Park Service estimated visitors to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison spent $25.6 million in towns nearby last year, contributing an overall economic impact of $31.9 million between supporting local jobs, businesses and more.
Looking to the future, superintendent Stuart West sees opportunities to build upon the recreational experience and update facilities to meet the demands of increased visitation. He’ll soon start creating a plan to address road and pedestrian traffic, add infrastructure and amenities for guests, and potentially construct new trails to make hiking more dynamic.
“We know that for 80% of our visitors, the park experience is going to the visitors center, then driving to and walking out to overlooks, and then they leave the park,” West said. “In general, the experience is a little one-dimensional in my mind. So with proper planning through a front country management plan, we could make visitors have a more all-encompassing experience when they go to the park.”
West isn’t bothered that The Black Canyon is Colorado’s least trafficked national park. That’s one of its selling points, he said. The fact that the park is also surrounded by protected wilderness means there’s endless exploration for folks who make the journey.
What’s one hidden gem visitors shouldn’t miss? “I think it’s for them to find out on their own,” West said.
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