Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Photos of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. RV camping in South Rim Campground and amazing views of the moon, Jupiter along with four of its visible moons, and even Saturn with its rings.

South Rim Campground

Never heard of this place? Neither had I until we went there! It’s not quite as expansive as the Grand Canyon, but still quite impressive since its attributes are steep, tall, and narrow which is a bit of the opposite of GC. We stayed at the south rim campground inside the park. We were probably the biggest rig there, but the spot J picked out (#18B) fit us nicely even if we could only keep the pop-out slides on the right side deployed because the campground loop road was on our left and pretty narrow. This was also the first place we had no cell service, even with the Weboost, so we were really roughing it hah!

Viewing the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn

On the first day we got set up and then did the short hike to the visitor center to get maps. Later in the evening, we did both the ranger talk about the canyon and there was an amateur astronomer coming into the park with his telescope for a star party at the top of a hill near the campground in the park. Unfortunately, it was the full moon so stargazing was a little difficult due to how bright the night sky was, but we got some amazing views of the moon, Jupiter along with four of its visible moons, and even Saturn with its rings! The good news is we will be in Utah still in national parks at the end of July for the new moon when the sky is the darkest and seeing more stars and even the haze of the Milky Way galaxy should be possible.

Mule Deer in Campground

The next day we took the car to all the scenic viewpoints deeper in the park on south rim road and then came back to camp, pulled out our gravity chairs, read our books, and maybe indulged in a short nap or two. That’s when we noticed a couple of mule deer enjoying some choice leaves from the tree right across the road from us! We would see these deer a more couple times right next to our campsite so they clearly had the run of the place. That night was another ranger talk on astronomy, and the ranger also did another telescope viewing although we didn't stay long for that since it was pretty much the same stuff visible we saw the previous night.

Warner Point

The next morning was departure day, but we were able to take the car out to the high point of the canyon and did a short hike out to Warner Point which is at the west end of the canyon and has views of both the canyon to the east and the two cities of Montrose and Olathe off to the west.

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