Blue Creek Canyon is a narrow, steep-walled canyon in

Gunnison County, Colorado Gunnison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,918. The county seat is Gunnison. The county was named for John W. Gunnison, a United States Army officer and captain in the Army ...

. It lies between Fitzpatrick Mesa and Blue Mesa and is south of

Morrow Point Reservoir Morrow Point Reservoir is an artificial reservoir on the Gunnison River in western Colorado. Located in the upper Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the lake was created in 1968 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as part of a larger plan to impound ...

and southeast of

Cimarron, Colorado Cimarron is an unincorporated rural hamlet in Montrose County, Colorado, United States. It is located on the northern side of U.S. Highway 50, 19 miles from the town of Montrose to its west, and 42 miles from Gunnison, Colorado Gunnison to its ...

U.S. Highway 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...

goes through the canyon. Gunnison County Road 867 (also called Alpine Plateau Road and Forest Service Road 867) intersects with Highway 50 near the middle of the canyon.

Upcoming highway construction

The highway through the canyon is narrow and winding. Because of this, many accidents have occurred there. The U.S. Department of Transportation and various other agencies are making safety improvements to the 3.8 mile section of the highway in Blue Creek Canyon (which U.S. DOT websites refer to as Little Blue Creek Canyon). The work began in April 2021 and will last through fall 2023. The construction — which involves widening the highway, widening and paving the shoulders, replacing guardrail, and adding new signage and striping — is requiring frequent and long-duration closures of the highway.

Blue Creek

Inside the canyon, Little Blue Creek and Big Blue Creek merge to form Blue Creek. The confluence is adjacent to the intersection of Highway 50 and Alpine Plateau Road, next to the bridge. Immediately after the confluence, Blue Creek flows under the bridge, flows north along the highway's west side, and then separates from the highway heading northwest and eventually empties into

at the Curecanti Needle.

Geology

The canyon walls are made of metamorphic rocks and are filled with big and small pegmatite

dikes Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to: General uses * Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian" * Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment * Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice * Dikes ...

. Some of the dikes contain large, intergrown crystals of

feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) felds ...

and pink quartz.

References

Canyons and gorges of Colorado Landforms of Gunnison County, Colorado U.S. Route 50

External links

{{Update after, 2022, 12, 01
Construction project website