Busy Times Here at the Black Canyon

It’s been a busy weekend at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, with campgrounds full and visitors filling our overlooks, it has been an eventful few days. I spent a few days this week exploring Curecanti National Recreation Area. Including trails like the Curecanti Creek Trail and Dillon Pinnacles Trail. 

The Curecanti Needle served as a landmark for  Natives and pioneers trying to navigate the Black Canyon.

On Friday I worked at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park,  after a brief ride of the South Rim Road (the most developed area of the park) Ranger Fritz and I went down East Portal Road, A 6 mile,  16% grade road that leads to the bottom of the canyon. Down there, the park does area checks at the Crystal Dam, which dams the Gunnison River, for the Bureau of Reclamation. After doing a few more drives down South Rim Road, we received word from another ranger that a bear had been spotted near the campground and we went into the brush to try and locate the bear, but we could not find it. Later in the evening we drove the South Rim Road and found a few people camping out of bounds, after directing them to Bureau of Land Management land outside the park, which has free dispersed camping. we were done for the night at midnight. 

           On Saturday, I went into Montrose in the morning to grab a few necessities for working in the canyon including a new backpack. After arriving at the office for work, Ranger Fritz and I stopped at the Visitor Center where we saw there were no parking spots available a few cars illegally parked on the side of the road. We got all the illegally parked cars to move and closed the parking lot for half an hour so it could clear out a little. After 2 hours in the Visitor Center Parking lot we continued up the South Rim Road where we encountered a few more people parking on the side of the road,  we again got them to move their cars to other overlooks or suggested they go down East Portal Road. Up at High Point (the highest point in the park) there were a total of 9 vehicles illegally parked, which led to a minor fender bender up at the top of High Point. After spending 3 hours at High Point, we went back to the office to take care of paperwork. A few hours and a few rim drives later, we got a call from the Visitor Center that a reporting party had seen a man dehydrated and vomiting at the bottom of the Canyon.

At 2000 feet deep, the hike down into the Canyon is a challenging, but rewarding experience.

              After gathering more information, one of our rangers hiked down the canyon to spend the night with the patient. Ranger Camp and I went to Sunset Overlook to establish a radio relay; because believe it or not, radios do not reach very far when you are at the bottom of a 2000-foot canyon. After setting up the relay, we received word that the patient was stable and at the bottom of the Warner route (the longest route into the canyon). We set a check in time for 6 am the next morning and we went to bed.

               On Sunday, at 6 am we made radio contact again with the ranger down in the canyon who didn’t sound too confident that the patient would be able to hike back up the Warner Route, so we called for a Medevac Helicopter.  

This small white dot  is the Helicopter going in to land at the bottom of the Warner Route.

           After the patient had been taken away by the  helicopter, the ranger in the canyon led the others of the party back up the route, while myself and another ranger went to collect the things that they had left at the bottom of the route. At around 11 am we made it down to the bottom of the canyon, we split up the 50 pounds of gear left at the bottom of the route and started to head back up the 3 mile trail that gains 2700 feet of elevation. It was a grueling 4 hour climb back up the canyon walls up to High point. After returning to the office we had a debrief of the Search and Rescue event that we had just completed , and a few other things that happened while I was down in the canyon (including a self-rescue with medical assistance at another route into the canyon).  

I took the next day off after hiking out of the canyon. 

Stay Tuned for more from The Black!