Steep deep and narrow is the best way to describe Black Canyon. In an engineering feat in the early 1900s, daring entrepreneurs and their hearty workforce established a rail link through part of the canyon and dug a tunnel with shovels and pick axes through the rock to divert the river water for irrigation in the next valley. Short hikes are mainly around the rim at 8400 ft unless you want to hike straight down 2000 ft to the icy waters of the Gunnison River flanked by poison ivy growing 5 ft high.
