Box Canyon, Natural canyon in Ouray County, United States.
Box Canyon is a narrow gorge near Ouray featuring steep quartzite walls and a powerful waterfall. The falls drop dramatically through the confined space, creating a striking natural setting where rock and water meet.
A mining camp was established inside the canyon, and this camp helped the city of Ouray establish itself as a permanent community. Access to the canyon today runs along a short 500-foot trail to the base of the falls or a steeper path to the top.
The falls are reached by a 500-foot foot trail to the base or a steeper path to the top; a fee is charged for trail use. The canyon's mining camp helped Ouray become a permanent community.
Two trails leave from the same entrance: a short 500-foot (150 m) path to the base of the falls, and a steep trail climbing to the top. A fee is charged for use of the trails. The falls and the quartzite walls rising almost 100 feet (30 m) above them are seen from inside the canyon.
The Elbert Formation rests directly on the much older Uncompahgre Formation, an angular unconformity representing a gap of about 1.3 billion years. Visitors looking at the tilted quartzite walls above the falls are seeing that contact between two rock layers of vastly different ages.
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