Black Canyon of the Gunnison: South Rim

The South Rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was busier than the North Rim in our early June visits, but even the busier South Rim was less busy than some other national parks this summer.

After a hearty, tasty, and well-presented breakfast at the Bross Hotel, we checked out and departed Paonia for the South Rim. We enjoyed seeing the small town of Hotchkiss for the first time along the route and arrived at the South Rim in late morning. The entrance to the South Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is near Montrose.

The South Rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison is more developed than the North Rim.

The South Rim Road is paved (compared to the graveled North Rim's Rim Road) and there are clearly marked parking spots near each overlook's trailhead (some are in dedicated parking lots and some are parallel parking spots).

The visitor center on the South Rim is larger than the North Rim ranger station and includes a gift shop. Due to COVID-19 concerns, only a handful of people were allowed in the cardoned-off gift shop area and most visitor center functions with the rangers were conducted outdoors in front of the visitor center. We did not wait in line to enter the gift shop in the morning, but instead returned in the late afternoon when there was no wait. The entire South Rim was significantly less busy in the late afternoon than it was in the morning.

The South Rim has more trails and overlooks than the North Rim that do not require permits. On our day at the South Rim, we hiked three (Oak Flat Loop Trail, Warner Point Nature Trail, and Cedar Point Trail) of the five hiking trails advertised on the website. The routes that go to the bottom of the canyon are not listed in the "Hiking Trails" section, but are instead described in the "Exploring the Inner Canyon" section and require wilderness use permits to use. We did not do any of these routes (South Rim Routes or North Rim Routes) requiring the wilderness permits and instead limited ourselves to the hikes that don't require the permits.

We started, as many first-time visitors to the South Rim probably do, with the Gunnison Point Overlook because it is visible and easily accessible (steps but short distance) from the South Rim Visitor Center. It'd be worth visiting the South Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison even if one only experienced this easily accessed overlook.

We hiked the Oak Flat Loop Trail next because we wanted to hike it in the late morning instead of the afternoon. That hike is discussed in more details in the post "Black Canyon of the Gunnison: Oak Flat Loop Trail".

The Cross Fissures View (an overlook) was our next stop.

The Devil's Overlook was next.

It was early afternoon, so we planned to go back into Montrose for lunch. There are no concessions or restaurants on either the North Rim or the South Rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison, but we welcomed the break from the sun to drive into Montrose and have lunch there. We ate lunch at the Camp Robber restaurant in Montrose.

We enjoyed a tasty lunch and a break in the air conditioned restaurant.

We checked into the Hampton Inn Montrose for the night (it was just down the main Townsend Avenue from Camp Robbers) and then returned to Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

One of the first things we noticed on our return to the South Rim was that it was considerably less busy in the late afternoon than it had been in the morning. We took advantage of this to go into the gift shop without having to wait because there were not even six people in it at that point (there had been a line waiting to enter it earlier in the morning). Most of the visitor center exhibits were closed off due to COVID-19 protocols, but a small corner was open with gift shop items and souvenirs.

Our first overlook after lunch was Tomichi Point. Its parking lot was crowded in the morning, but was almost empty in the afternoon.

We could also see how much less crowded popular Gunnison Point was now.

Pulpit Rock outlook was next.

Chasm View Overlook

The Cedar Point Overlook features nice views of the Gunnison River inside the canyon.

Cedar Point Overlook is also popular for its perspective on the Painted Wall.

The trail to Cedar Point Overlook also includes interesting vegetation.

Dragon Point Overlook is a lot like Cedar Point Overlook. It supplies an impressive view of the Gunnison River snaking its way through the canyon.

Dragon Point Overlook provides another impessive perpsective of the Painted Wall.

There are other visually interesting features along the Dragon Point Trail as well.

The Sunset View Overlook features two vantage points for dramatic and different perspectives of the Black Canyon. The first point is at its parking lot that features picnic tables and a vault toilet.

The second point is an observation deck a short distance away that is visible from the parking lot.

A portion of the Painted Wall can be seen from Sunset Point Overlook's observation deck.

There is a lot of green here at Sunset View parking lot and overlook and the views provide a different perspective on the Black Canyon.

We finished our day at the South Rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park by driving to High Point parking lot and hiking the Warner Point Nature Trail.

We saw only two other parties (five people total) during this entire hike in late Tuesday afternoon in early June. More observations and photographs from this hike are available in the post "Black Canyon of the Gunnison: Warner Point Nature Trail".

We enjoyed our two days at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and are glad that we did experience rims of this glorious canyon.