A paved two-lane road curves into a wide canyon beneath layered red rock cliffs and steep, scrub-covered slopes dotted with patches of snow. Clear blue afternoon sky and pale winter grass frame the rugged granite walls and scattered boulders along the roadside.

Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic Byway - Unaweep Canyon

Grand Junction, CO

Unaweep Canyon is a geologically unique canyon with the rare feature of having two creeks flowing in opposite directions from a central divide. The canyon walls expose 1.7-billion-year-old Precambrian granite and gneiss capped by Wingate sandstone. The Unaweep Divide at 7,048 feet marks the point where West Creek and East Creek separate.

Photography Guide

Best Time: afternoon
Crowds: Quiet
Shot Types: widelandscapedetail
Best Seasons: springsummerfall

Practical Tips

Drive Highway 141 south from Grand Junction through the canyon. Several pulloffs along the road offer vantage points. The Unaweep Divide area has the most dramatic cliff exposures.

Is it a good day to go?

7-day outlook

Mild, dry days with light winds are the most comfortable for a visit.

Forecast by Open-Meteo. Verdicts weigh the forecast against the conditions that suit this spot.

Author's Comments

The first time I drove Highway 141 south out of Grand Junction, I did not know what I was looking at. I knew the walls were tall and the road was empty and the light in the late afternoon was doing something I wanted to photograph. What I did not know was that I was driving along a divide where two creeks part ways and run in opposite directions, which is the kind of geological fact that sounds invented until you stand at the high point at 7,048 feet and feel the country tilting away from you in both directions. The walls are old in a way that is hard to hold in your head. Precambrian granite at the base, almost two billion years of it, and then Wingate sandstone laid across the top like a much younger hat. Afternoon light is what makes this readable. The granite goes warm and the sandstone goes red and the seam between them becomes the photograph. I tend to work from the pulloffs near the divide, where the cliffs are tallest and the shadows fall longest into the canyon floor. This is not a place that crowds. I have driven the byway on a Saturday in October and passed maybe four cars in two hours. That solitude is part of what the canyon offers, and it changes how you photograph it. There is no rush. You can wait for the light to do what it is going to do. Bring a wide lens for the scale and a longer one for the detail in the rock face, where the granite weathers in ways that reward closer attention than most drivers give it.

Gallery

A towering gray-and-rust sandstone spire rises above a sunlit canyon slope dusted with patchy snow and dark evergreen shrubs. In the lower right, a small stone ruin sits in a grassy meadow beneath the sheer rock wall under a clear blue afternoon sky. Photo: Jeffrey Beall / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

A green roadside sign marks the Unaweep Divide at 7,048 feet, with arrows pointing west to West Creek and east to East Creek. Highway 141 curves into a wide, sunlit canyon of rugged dark rock walls, sparse shrubs, and a clear blue sky. Photo: Jeffrey Beall / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

A green roadside sign for “Unaweep Divide” stands in the foreground, marking elevation 7,048 feet and pointing left to West Creek and right to East Creek. Behind it, sunlit canyon walls rise under a clear blue sky, with sparse shrubs and dry grass in the foreground. Photo: Jeffrey Beall / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

A winding two-lane road leads through Unaweep Canyon toward snow-streaked granite cliffs under a clear blue sky. Evergreen-covered slopes frame the scene, with a mile marker and roadside sign in the foreground. Photo: Jeffrey Beall / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0

Two hikers walk along a dusty trail in Unaweep Canyon, with sunlit granite boulders and a steep, shadowed rock wall rising on the right. Power lines cut across the clear blue sky above the sparse shrubs and open canyon floor. Photo: Bureau of Land Management / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Pine-covered canyon slope with a large twisted trunk in the foreground, looking across a rocky, green hillside toward distant layered cliffs under soft afternoon light. The scene feels quiet and dry, with scattered brush and exposed red stone between the trees. Photo: Patrick Alexander from Las Cruces, NM / Wikimedia Commons / CC0

A rocky canyon slope covered in scattered boulders, scrubby juniper, and spiky yucca rises toward green ridgelines under a cloudy afternoon sky. The narrow dirt path cuts through the uneven, granite-strewn hillside, with the opposite canyon wall visible in the distance. Photo: Patrick Alexander from Las Cruces, NM / Wikimedia Commons / CC0

A winding two-lane scenic byway snakes through a steep desert canyon, with layered pink-and-gray rock walls rising above scattered juniper and scrub. In the foreground, a rocky slope dotted with small yellow wildflowers leads down toward the road under soft afternoon light. Photo: Patrick Alexander from Las Cruces, NM / Wikimedia Commons / CC0

A two-lane road curves into a broad green canyon floor, with steep dark granite cliffs rising on both sides and a layered rock outcrop on the right. Heavy gray storm clouds fill the sky, giving the afternoon scene a moody, rain-soaked look. Photo: Anky-man at English Wikipedia (Original text: Anky-man 21:59, 22 May 2007 (UTC)) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

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