AZ -- Grand Canyon Natl Park -- South Rim -- Scenery:
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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.
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GRCSS_060523_078.JPG: That's the Colorado River down there
GRCSS_060523_190.JPG: That's the Bright Angel Canyon trail down there. Notice the people hiking it.
GRCSS_060523_215.JPG: Indian Garden is where that group of trees are. The trail leading behind it goes out to Plateau Point.
GRCSS_060523_244.JPG: Bright Angel Trail:
Bright Angel Trail descends 4.6 miles from the canyon rim to Indian Garden, then continues an additional 3.2 miles to the Colorado River. The Bright Angel trailhead is located near the Kolb Studio.
The trail zigzags down the canyon toward the Colorado River. The Bright Angel is Grand Canyon's most heavily used trail. For centuries, Havasupai Indians used this trail route, which has two great virtues -- water and access. A reliable spring emerges at Indian Garden, and a natural break in the cliffs provides access.
In the 1890s, prospectors improved the old Havasupai route. One prospector, Ralph Cameron, secured control of the trail through mining claims and then charged tolls for trail use. After years of legal battle, in 1928 the National Park Service gained jurisdiction over the trail and tolls ceased. The Bright Angel has been Grand Canyon's most popular trail ever since.
The conspicuous trail north of Indian Garden is the Plateau Point Trail, which leads 1.4 miles from Indian Garden to Plateau Point, an overlook 1400 feet above the Colorado River.
GRCSS_060523_249.JPG: San Francisco Peaks:
Almost 60 miles away, the peaks of the San Francisco mountains loom high above the horizon. Humphreys Peak [near Flagstaff] dominates, at 12,633 feet, it is Arizona's highest point.
The San Francisco Peaks are remnants of volcanoes. Geologically young, they formed in the past six million years and have been active as recently as 1000 years ago.
Much closer stands Red Butte. Though technically not part of the San Francisco Peaks, Red Butte owns its existence to them. When volcanoes formed the peaks, lava covered an area that today includes Red Butte. Red Butte survives as an erosional remnant of Moenkopf Sandstone capped with resistant lava.
GRCSS_060523_322.JPG: Grand Canyon
GRCSS_060523_456.JPG: A Trail, a Camp, and a "Hermit":
Looking down into Hermit Canyon, you can see part of Hermit Trail and the remains of the Hermit Camp. In 1911-12, the Santa Fe Railroad built both trail and camp to serve a blossoming tourist trade.
Why did Santa Fe build here at remote Hermit Canyon, 9 miles from the depot? By building their own trail here, the railroad avoided trails on the privately-controlled Bright Angel Trail.
With some sandstone-paved sections and rock walls along the outer edge, Hermit Trail was once considered the finest trail in the Canyon. A local newspaper in 1912 described the new trail as "a marvel of engineering skill." Though nature has since restored Hermit Trail to a rough and rugged condition, it is still very popular with backcountry hikers.
Why the name "Hermit"? Around 1891, Canadian-born prospector Louis Boucher staked claims below present-day Hermits Rest. With help, Louis carved a trail into the Canyon and for years lived alone at nearby Dripping Springs. He has been described as a kind, gentle soul. Though not a true hermit, Louis Boucher is the "hermit" for whom local features are named.
GRCSS_060523_578.JPG: Grandview, 1898
"No language can fully describe, no artist paint the beauty, grandeur, immensity and sublimity of this most wonderful production of Nature's great architect. [Grand Canyon] must be seen to be appreciated."
-- C.O. Hall, Grand Canyon visitor, 1895.
Reports like this from early tourists aroused curiosity and stimulated Grand Canyon tourism.
The year is 1898, and you have come to decide whether the lofty reports you've heard about Grand Canyon are true. Pete Berry, miner-turned-hotel-manager, greets you here at his Grand View Hotel and escorts you to the canyon rim. Awestruck, you quickly forget your bone-jarring, 12-hour stagecoach ride from Flagstaff. You begin to ponder tomorrow's mule ride into the canyon.
Thus began Grand Canyon tourism. Mining proved only briefly profitable, so a few entrepreneurs like Pete Berry turned to tourists for profits. In 1893 Berry offered crude lodging in a cabin here at Grandview, and began guiding eager, mule-riding patrons into the canyon. In 1897 he built a two-story log hotel, and later added a large frame building.
Until 1901 Grandview was Grand Canyon's most popular tourist destination. Grandview boasted the best hotel, and some said, the best trail. After 1901 when the Santa Fe Railroad reached Grand Canyon Village, 11 miles west of here, few tourists opted for the jolting stagecoach ride to Grandview. Today little remains of Pete Berry's hotel on the rim.
GRCSS_060523_612.JPG: Spanish Discovery:
Near here in late summer of 1549, soldiers from the Spanish expedition of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado became the first Europeans to see Grand Canyon.
After journeying for six months, Coronado's army arrived at the Hopi mesas, east of Grand Canyon. From there, Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, guided by Hopi Indians, led a small party of men to find a reported "great river". After 20 days, they reached the south rim of Grand Canyon, emerging from the forest to stand on the edge of this vast chasm.
Cardenas's party spent three days trying to reach the bottom of the canyon, in vain, then returned to Coronado to report their discovery.
GRCSS_060523_618.JPG: Somewhere near here is where the Spanish were the first Europeans to discover the Grand Canyon.
GRCSS_060523_667.JPG: Unkar Delta:
The broad sandy expanse on the north bank of the Colorado River is Unkar Delta, composed of rock debris carried from the North Rim by Unkar Creek. Prehistoric Pueblo people occupied numerous sites on Unkar Delta and along Unkar Creek for about 350 years (AD 850 to AD 1200).
More than 2500 archeological sites have been found in Grand Canyon. They are vulnerable and irreplaceable. Laws protecting archeological sites and artifacts are strictly enforced.
Archeologists suspect that Unkar Delta was occupied primarily in winter, with many occupants moving to cooler sites on the North Rim in summer.
GRCSS_060523_669.JPG: Unkar Delta. The flat area is the Tonto Platform.
GRCSS_060523_697.JPG: Gorge and Platform:
The rugged, V-shaped Inner Gorge rises darkly from the Colorado River. The broad shelf above it is the Tonto Platform, which spreads like a soft green blanket across both sides of the canyon.
The Inner Gorge begins here, where other Pre-Cambrian rocks are first exposed. These rocks, which include the dark-colored Vishnu Schist and pink Zoroaster Granite, are the oldest rocks exposed at Grand Canyon. West of here (downstream), the Inner Gorge achieves a depth of over 1200 feet.
The Tonto Platform is formed where exposures of the relatively soft, easily eroded Bright Angel Shale retreat to the base of the Redwall cliff. It is one of the few expanses of relatively flat terrain in the canyon. The Tonto Trail meanders across this platform for 92 miles in an east-west direction.
The Tonto Platform is sparsely vegetated with blackbrush, sage, and desert scrub, and owes its color partly to vegetation, and partly to the pale green color of the Bring Angel Shale.
GRCSS_060523_701.JPG: Hance Rapid:
The rapid far below you in the Colorado River is Hance Rapid, one of over a hundred major rapids in Grand Canyon. The rapid is almost a mile in length; the river drops more than 30 vertical feet in that stretch. Seen from the rip, rapids appear tiny, and it is difficult to grasp their awesome power.
What is it like to run such a rapid? On his pioneering river trip in 1869, Major John Wesley Powell avoided Hance Rapid by "lining" past it (using ropes to work his boats along the shore).
But Major Powell couldn't line past another major rapid a short distance downriver. He described his experience:
"...down and up on waves higher and still higher until we strike one just as it curls back, and a breaker rolls over our little boat. Still on we speed, shooting past projecting rocks, till the little boat is caught in a whirlpool and spun around several times... The open compartment... is filled with water and every breaker rolls over us... Hurled back from a rock, now on this side, now on that, we are carried into an eddy... the breakers still rolling over us."
Early expeditions tried to avoid Hance Rapid. ... [You could also remove your supplies and try to run the lightened boats through that way. A 1923 survey did this.] Edith Kolb rode in one of the boats [in the 1923 survey team], becoming the first woman to run a major Grand Canyon rapid. The mules arrived via Hance Trail.
GRCSS_060523_713.JPG: The mountain is Cedar Mountain
AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
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2006 photos: Equipment this year: I was using all six Fuji cameras at various times -- an S602Zoom, two S7000s,a S5200, an S9000, and an S9100. The majority of pictures this year were taken with the S9000. I have to say, the S7000s was the best camera I've used up to this point..
Trips this year: Florida (two separate trips including Lotusphere and taking care of mom), three weeks out west (including Yellowstone), Williamsburg, San Diego (comic book convention), and Georgia.
Number of photos taken this year: 183,000.
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