Those who get to name spectacular rock formations don't think in terms of podiums or lecterns. No, such beauties need a more spiritual moniker. The Rim House, a hamburger stand and souvenir shop, serves the still-breathless after they have taken in the Pulpit and the rocks beside it. If there were any doubt that a river runs through it and eroded so much solid rock, the overlook here lets people see all the way down to the Gunnison, its frothing whitecaps demonstrating that there's more than a trickle 1,820 feet below. The wall painted itself, through eons of pressure and erosion and expansion, so that pink streaks of pegmatite form patterns on the otherwise gray and black schist and gneiss.
Viewpoints here are hard-won but worth the effort.
You get an entirely different perspective on the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, plus some blessed solitude. North Rim Road. By Robert Cross, Tribune Staff Writer.