Round Trip Distance: 0.2 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation: 7815 - 7823 feet
Cellphone: 0 bars
Time: 15 mins.
Trailhead: Balanced Rock
Fee: $15/vehicle
Attractions: Scenic canyon views
The Balanced Rock Overlook is located in the North Rim Section of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park near Crawford, Colorado. For those that are wondering about visiting both sides of the park in one day it is about a 90 mile drive from the North Rim Ranger Station to the South Rim Visitor Center and it takes about 2 hours. The South Rim Section has about 12 short overlook trails and the North Rim Section has about 6. It would be a pretty long day seeing them all so you might consider staying at one of the nice campgrounds on either side of the canyon. A day on each side would allow you to see all of the overlooks and also enjoy a couple of the great hiking trails.
The Balance Rock trailhead is 1.2 miles from the North Rim Ranger Station.
The trail is short and easy enough that visitors with small children probably won't want to mess with a stroller.
You will want to keep hold of your kids though and not let them run ahead of you because all of the cliff edges are not protected.
This is a picture of the spot where the huge boulder is balanced on the edge of the cliff. The boulder is so big and close enough to the overlook that it won't all fit into one frame of an 18mm lens.
This is a look at the boulder from the opposite side.
You might notice that the canyon walls on the North Rim side of the canyon are more vertical than those on the South Rim side. That allows visitors to get better views of the canyon and the Gunnison River.
It is pretty neat how they get the safety fences anchored right on the edge of the cliffs making the perfect place to look down into the canyon.
With eroding landscapes rocks seem to get left in the most precarious positions where they withstand the forces of wind and rain sometimes for millennia. They look as though they would be easy to push over, and maybe they are, but yet we have many famous examples like Arches Balanced Rock, Miracle Rock and Colorado National Monuments Balanced Rock. If you would like to see any of them for yourself then all you have to do is 'Take a hike'.