Existing comment:
Chasm View:
Do you feel uneasy gazing into the canyon? The steep walls of Black Canyon range in depth from 2700 feet north of Warner Point to 1750 feet at the Narrows, a short distance upstream from here. The Narrows, between Pulpit Rocks and Chasm View, is the shallowest and narrowest section in the monument. Here the canyon is less than a quarter-mile across.
The Gunnison River has a very steep gradient. Within the monument, the river has an average fall of 95 feet per mile. This gives the river the energy needed to cut downward faster than most other kinds of erosion can widen it. The words of an early surveyor reveal another view of this erosion:
"Hereto was unfolded view after view of the most wonderful, the most thrilling of rock exposures, one vanishing from view only to be replaced by another still more imposing. A view which could easily be made into a Scottish Feudal Castle would be followed by another suggesting the wildest part of imposing height and majestic proportions..." - HC Wright, member of the 1882 Bryon Bryant railroad survey. |