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