Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park covers about 30,800 acres on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains in west-central Colorado. Inside it the Gunnison River has cut a gorge 2,722 feet deep at Warner Point and only 40 feet wide at the river at The Narrows. The canyon became a national monument on 2 March 1933 and a national park on 21 October 1999. It had 250,086 recreation visits in 2025.

The park has two rims with no bridge between them, and a fire in 2025 still shapes a visit to the southern one. We read the figures below on 28 October 2026 on the park's own pages, alerts and news releases, Recreation.gov, Montrose's tourism site and NOAA's normals.

Are the South Rim, North Rim and East Portal roads open before mid-November?

On 28 October 2026 the park's conditions page listed all three of Black Canyon's roads as open: South Rim Road, North Rim Road and East Portal Road. The page carries the date 13 October, and no park page had announced a closing date for the winter. The park itself stays open 24 hours a day, all year.

The roads close on a usual pattern rather than a fixed date. South Rim Road to High Point is usually open to cars from late April to mid-November. In winter the road stays open only as far as the visitor centre at Gunnison Point. The North Rim road typically closes in mid-November and reopens in May. East Portal Road stays closed in winter, typically from November to April.

In winter the rest of South Rim Drive becomes a 6-mile ski and snowshoe trail, as staffing and conditions allow. There is no equipment rental in the park. Tomichi Point and Gunnison Point overlooks, the visitor centre and the rim trails stay open, though the trails may be icy.

Google Maps will not route to the South Rim Visitor Center while the road is shut. The Park Service says to choose the South Rim Entrance Station instead. The park's water systems have been shut off for the winter, October to April, so bring drinking water. The park is on Mountain Time, and clocks went back on 1 November 2026, so sunset on the rim comes an hour earlier.

How much is the Black Canyon entrance fee, and does the gate take cash?

Black Canyon of the Gunnison charges $30 per car for seven days, $25 per motorcycle and $15 per person aged 16 or over on foot or bicycle. Children under 16 enter free. You need no reservation, and you can also buy a pass in advance on Recreation.gov.

Black Canyon is not on the 2026 list of eleven parks with a $100 surcharge for non-residents. Two adults from abroad in one car therefore pay $30, the same as Americans. Since 1 April 2025 the entrance station, campgrounds and permits have taken cards and mobile payments only, with no cash or cheques. Keep a digital pass offline or as a screenshot, because the entrance station may have little or no signal.

The park's own $55 annual pass and the fee-free days are for US citizens and residents only. The $250 non-resident America the Beautiful pass does not pay off at Black Canyon alone. Our guide to national park fees for international visitors explains where it does.

At the North Rim the only way to pay is a self-pay point at the ranger station. The Park Service strongly advises buying the digital pass before driving there.

What did the 2025 South Rim Fire close, and what is still shut?

Lightning started wildfires on both of Black Canyon's rims on 10 July 2025, and the whole park closed until further notice. The North Rim reopened on 30 July. The South Rim reopened in stages: the road to the visitor centre and two overlooks from 18 August, then the whole 7.3-mile road and its 12 viewpoints from 29 August. On 20 November the Oak Flat Trail and part of the Uplands Trail reopened.

The fire still shapes a South Rim visit in 2026. The Tomichi wilderness route remains closed until further notice, and the park warns of hazardous burned-area conditions on the Gunnison Route. Walkers can use the Rim Rock and Uplands trails, but both pass through heavily burned ground, with uneven surfaces and blowing ash. South Rim Campground has reopened 25 of its 88 sites, all without electricity, and ash and fire debris may be present.

The park recorded 250,086 recreation visits in 2025, against 335,862 in 2024. From January to June 2025 it had 136,283 visits, up from 124,967 a year earlier. From July to December it had 113,803, against 210,895 in the same months of 2024. The park's pages give no explanation of the figures.

How deep is the Black Canyon at Warner Point and the Painted Wall?

Black Canyon's greatest depth is 2,722 feet (829 m), at Warner Point, according to the park's canyon-dimensions page. At Chasm View the canyon is 1,820 feet deep and 1,100 feet wide from rim to rim. At The Narrows the river runs between walls only 40 feet (12 m) apart. The canyon is 48 miles long, and 14 of those miles lie inside the park.

The Painted Wall rises 2,250 feet (686 m) from river to rim, and the Park Service calls it the highest cliff in Colorado. Its pale stripes are veins of pink pegmatite in metamorphic rock about 1.8 billion years old. About 60 million years ago uplift raised that rock, and volcanoes buried it about 30 million years ago. The river then cut down through it.

The Gunnison River falls an average of 43 feet a mile through the canyon, and 240 feet a mile at Chasm View. The rim stands at about 8,000 feet, and High Point on the South Rim at 8,289 feet.

Black Canyon became an International Dark Sky Park in September 2015. The park never closes, so the overlooks stay open for stargazing at any hour. The Park Service names Chasm View, Dragon Point and Sunset View on the South Rim, and runs telescope programmes through the summer.

Which overlooks between Tomichi Point and High Point fit a short visit?

South Rim Drive runs 7 miles along the edge of the Black Canyon from Tomichi Point to High Point and has 12 overlooks, most reached by a short walk. The Park Service suggests allowing two to three hours to see several of them. With less time, it names four: Gunnison Point, Chasm View, Painted Wall and Sunset View.

All roads on the South Rim are paved. The visitor centre at Gunnison Point opens every day of the year except Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and its overlooks are a short walk away on an unpaved trail. Pulpit Rock, Chasm View and Sunset View are the accessible overlooks. Pulpit Rock, Sunset View and High Point also have picnic areas.

Many places on the rim have no guardrails, and the park asks visitors never to throw anything into the canyon. Dogs on a lead may go to the South Rim overlooks, the Cedar Point Nature Trail and the Rim Rock Trail, but not to other trails. Between May and October, especially on holiday weekends, the entrance can have long queues, and the visitor-centre car park often fills in summer.

The six rim trails on the park's conditions page were all open on 13 October 2026. The park's brochure gives the Oak Flat Loop as about 2 miles and difficult, and the Rim Rock and Uplands trails as 1 and 2 miles. The Warner Point Trail runs 0.75 mile one way.

Is the North Rim worth the 82-mile drive round the gorge?

The North Rim of the Black Canyon is the quieter, more primitive side of the park, in the Park Service's words, and no bridge links it to the South Rim. The drive between the two is about 82 miles by our own routing, a little over two hours; the Park Service says to allow two to three hours. The way in is Black Canyon Road, which leaves CO 92 about 3 miles south of Crawford.

The last 7 miles of that road, and the whole North Rim Road, are unpaved gravel, though the park says they are typically in good condition. The Park Service's pages count either five or six overlooks reached by car, and none of them is paved or accessible. Allow two to three hours for the rim drive itself.

The North Rim ranger station opens intermittently in summer and has a self-pay point and a permit kiosk. Its campground has 13 first-come sites at $20 a night, a 22-foot limit on vehicles and no water now. Cattle graze on parts of the rim, so leave gates closed. The road typically closes in mid-November and reopens in May.

Why does East Portal Road keep closing?

East Portal Road in Black Canyon of the Gunnison closes when storms bring mudslides down its slopes, and in 2026 it shut twice. Around 5 p.m. on 16 July, at least three mudslides covered the road, campground and picnic area with up to six feet of boulders, rocks and mud. Eighteen visitors were evacuated by midnight, with no injuries.

The road reopened on 4 September, closed again on 14 September for a forecast of bad weather, and reopened on 19 September. The campground's upper sites have reopened; the lower walk-in section has not. A thunderstorm or rain forecast can close the road without notice, and the park's 2026 releases tell drivers to take extreme care in rain near fire scars.

East Portal Road leaves the park entrance station and drops just over 5 miles to the river at 6,547 feet, with grades of 16% in places. The road bars vehicles over 22 feet, trailers included, and the park advises low gear. The Bureau of Reclamation manages the road. East Portal itself lies in Curecanti National Recreation Area, and the only way there is from the South Rim. The park's entrance fee covers it.

At the bottom are river access, the campground, and exhibits on the Gunnison Tunnel and its diversion dam. Crews and equipment for the tunnel came down this road from 1905 to 1909. Allow one to two hours.

Who needs a permit to go down into the Black Canyon?

Every trip into Black Canyon's inner canyon needs a wilderness permit, for a day or overnight, because the inner canyon is designated wilderness. The routes down are not trails but very steep scrambles on loose rock. The Park Service does not recommend them to anyone with heart or lung problems, and a rescue can take many hours to over a day.

From 1 May to 31 October, hikers must book South Rim route permits on Recreation.gov, at $6 a permit plus $4 a person, on top of the entrance fee. From 1 November they are free and first come, first served at the visitor centre. North Rim permits are always free and issued only on the day. South Rim groups may have no more than four people, and every applicant must first watch the park's orientation video, under four minutes long.

The figures in the table are the park's own. The Park Service suggests the Gunnison Route for a first descent from the South Rim and still calls it very strenuous. Carry 4 litres of water per person per day. GPS units often do not work in the canyon. Inner-canyon travel in winter is not recommended.

The Devil's Backbone route at East Portal needs no permit for a day hike. Red Rock Canyon, reached from a county road, takes eight people a day all year, with permits on Recreation.gov from May to October. For a walk down with no permit, the Park Service points to Curecanti National Recreation Area. Its maintained trails run from the upper rim down to reservoir level.

Montrose or Gunnison: where do you sleep when the park has no lodge?

Black Canyon of the Gunnison has no lodges or restaurants, so the nearest hotels and meals are in Montrose or Gunnison. Montrose, 14 miles from the South Rim visitor centre, is the nearer base, and its tourism site lists 14 hotels. The visitor-centre bookstore sells only some hiking snacks.

The park's three campgrounds are the only places to sleep inside it, apart from wilderness sites below the rim. The statuses below are from the park's camping page of 15 October 2026.

The first-come sites are paid with Scan & Pay on Recreation.gov's app. South Rim Campground has no water hookups or dump station, and generators are not allowed. There is no firewood collecting or sale in the park. Black bears visit the campgrounds, so food and coolers go in the lockers.

On 28 October Recreation.gov showed almost every South Rim site free from November to March. Bookings for April 2027 had not yet opened.

How cold is the rim against Montrose and Gunnison?

The Black Canyon rim stands at about 8,000 feet, some 2,200 feet above Montrose. Montrose's figures are a guide to the canyon floor, which the Park Service calls similar. The table gives NOAA's 1991 to 2020 average highs and lows for three nearby towns, not for the rim.

Gunnison, at 7,622 feet, sits closer to the rim's height and falls to 0°F or below on an average of 62.5 days a year. The Park Service gives summer days in the park of 60°F to 100°F, with nights of 30°F to 50°F and afternoon thunderstorms.

Winter days run from 20°F to 40°F, and nights from −10°F to 20°F. Snow is common in early spring and late autumn, and the inner canyon is at least 5°F to 10°F warmer than the rim.

June was the busiest month in both 2024 and 2025. In 2025 it had 55,009 visits, against 4,069 in December, the quietest. Montrose gets only 9.33 inches of precipitation a year.

How far is the Black Canyon from Montrose, Grand Junction and Denver?

Black Canyon's South Rim visitor centre is 14 miles from Montrose, 75 from Grand Junction and 264 from Denver, by the park's own figures. The South Rim is 7 miles north on CO 347 from its junction with US 50 east of Montrose. There is no public transport inside the park, though the Park Service says buses and flights serve Montrose, Gunnison and Grand Junction.

Distances without "about" are the park's own; the rest, and every drive time, come from our own routing. The park's brochure and Recreation.gov put Denver at 250 miles and Montrose at 15. Montrose's tourism site says its airport has summer non-stop flights from Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, Chicago and Houston, with car hire at the terminal.

Black Canyon is one of four national parks in our guide to Colorado. The others are Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde National Park and Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.