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Tag: crystal dam

Deep Black: East Portal Trail to Deadhorse Gulch

Black Canyon of the Gunnison | Saturday, May 30, 2026

After floating a short segment of the Gunnison River through Delta on Saturday morning, I returned home in the afternoon to drop off my rafting gear, took a quick shower and loaded up my camping gear into the 4Runner since I had made a last minute decision to hike the Ouray Perimeter Trail first thing on Sunday morning. I figured that on my way to Ouray I could spend the rest of this evening at the East Portal deep in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison since I had not been down that way in over a decade and there was a short hiking route just downstream from the campground that I had not hiked before and was interested in checking out.

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The Black Canyon of the Gunnison

Saturday, October 17, 2015

It’s been a few years since I had been to many of the main overlooks along the South Rim in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and I thought it was time to finally get back for another visit. Diane and I left home early enough on Saturday morning so that we were able to make it to the Cedar Point overlook about a half hour before the sun came up. I spent that time photographing The Painted Wall and the deep canyon below us until shortly after the sunrise. Once the sun was up we drove the rest of the way to the end of the road and hiked out to Warner Point since I had never been out there before. Clouds started rolling in from the west as we hiked back to the trailhead as a storm front moved into the area that was supposed to bring us some rain for the next couple of days. After our hike, we drove back out of the park and stopped at a couple of the other viewpoints along the way. Before leaving we drove down the East Portal Road to the Crystal Dam on the Gunnison River and were pleasantly surprised to find a couple nice patches of fall colors along the way. It’s always nice to spend a few hours along the rim of The Black Canyon.

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