Located on the Uncompahgre Plateau in western Colorado, the Unaweep Canyon is one of the largest canyons in the area, with an average elevation of nearly 3 kilometers. The only canyon in the Colorado River drainage that is not filled with water is Unaweep Canyon.
In the canyon, a gentle divide-the almost imperceptible Unaweep Divide-allows two small creeks to flow paradoxically opposite directions. Therefore, Unaweep Canyon has two mouths, making it the only canyon in the world that has two mouths. In response to the question of why Unaweep Canyon was formed, multiple theories have been proposed.
A canyon with two outlets was initially noticed by members of the Hayden Survey in the late 19th century, and it was suggested that it had been carved by the ancestral Colorado or Gunnison rivers. There are two creeks in the canyon, East Creek and West Creek, which flow in opposite directions, merging near Whitewater with the Gunnison River and the Dolores River, respectively.
There are 70 kilometers of winding passage through the Unaweep Canyon between these two towns, nearly a kilometer deep and sometimes as wide as six kilometers. Geologists believe that the canyon was either dug by the Colorado River or the Gunnison River, or both or later abandoned as the rivers changed their course.
The two creeks occupying the canyon are too small to have excavated such a massive pathway, geologists speculate that the canyon was dug by either river. This theory can be challenged by the fact that the canyon’s elevation is relatively low, and that no Pleistocene glacial deposits have been found. Unaweep was thought to have existed as a paleo canyon prior to the Gunnison River excavation.
A few large ranching families and private residences own the canyon, which is entirely on private property. The wagon route was used to transport supplies into Gateway for the radium boom in the early 1900s. State highways were later constructed along this route.
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