The North Rim of the Grand Canyon

We left Moab and Arches National Park early Tuesday morning and headed back to I-70 westward bound.  I-70 is the interstate highway which we have traveled many times, usually picking it up in St. Louis headed west to Denver. I had been as far west on I-70 as Grand Junction, Colorado, but never further.

On this trip we picked up I-70 in Eastern Utah and took it almost all the way to I-15, which is the north/south route from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas, and where I-70 ends.  This section of I-70 divides the San Rafael Swell, an amazing uplifting of the Colorado Plateau which occurred millions of years ago, and it's the only road into this region  The swell is about 75 by 40 miles in area, rising to elevations above 8800 feet.  The same process of uplifting and erosion which we saw in Arches has happened here, except that water has played a more major role in shaping its geologic features.  Canyons, gorges, wide mesas and buttes further than the eye can see made for a jaw-dropping drive.  Parts of this drive look like images from Mars or the moon - strangely enough, The Mars Society decided to set up the Mars Desert Research Station in this region in order to develop key knowledge needed to prepare for the human exploration of Mars!!

We headed south just before the I-70/I-15 junction and away from the San Rafael Swell.  I still remember that this portion of our continent was covered by that vast inland sea, and with just a little bit of imagination I'm in a submarine navigating the bottom of the ocean floor as we navigate our way across this now high desert.

The north rim of the Grand Canyon is very remote.  It's 30 miles one way into the Visitor Center and Lodge, and it is the only entrance into the park.  Once there, the canyon itself is of course the main attraction.  There are many ways to view this spectacular natural wonder, the first of which is from the Grand Canyon Lodge itself.  The dining room, the huge open seating area and the balconies all front on the north rim of the canyon.

After dropping our backpacks in the cabin we had booked for the night - also on the rim of the canyon - we headed out to explore the trails around the rim.  The Transcept Trail winds around under the Lodge and offers a couple of overlooks on narrow points jutting out into the canyon.  Butch snapped this photo of me from a safe spot on the trail.  He prefers not to be too close to the edge, and was not even real comfortable with the fact that I was - but he did manage to click the shutter!

I also hiked out to Bright Angel Point which looks down Bright Angel Canyon through which the North Kaibab Trail leads down 14 miles to Phantom Ranch and the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon.  The trail out to the point is only a quarter of a mile and well worth the trip - the overlook is just stunning.


We sat on the lodge balcony with a glass of wine and watched the sun set.  After dinner, we slowly made our way back around the rim to our cabin.  The park has done a very nice job of keeping the light pollution to a minimum, and the sky was clear so we could see the Milky Way and millions of stars.

For breakfast the next morning, we had a window table and a totally different view of the canyon in the morning sun. 

The Bridle Trail connects the Lodge to the North Kaibab Trail and is a beautiful walk through a ponderosa pine forest.  The park ranger had told us that we might see a Kaibab Squirrel, a funny-looking tassel-eared squirrel with a skunk-like stripe down his back and a white tail, found only in the North Rim.  I didn't see a live one, but here's a picture!

At the North Kaibab Trail, I couldn't resist getting one more view of the canyon.  This trail descends 6,000 feet to the floor of the canyon through many layers of stone.  The top layer, the kaibab layer, for which the Kaibab Plateau is named, represents about the first 800-foot layer of the peninsula on which we stand.  I hiked 1.5 miles down to the Coconino Overlook, named for the coconino sandstone which makes up the second layer of rock.  From this overlook, the sheer size of the canyon is overwhelming.

Mule trains haul people up and down this trail and a couple of groups passed me as I headed down the trail.  By the time I climbed up the 800 feet to return to the parking lot, I was sort of wishing for a mule!  It's amazing how quickly the temperature rises as one descends the canyon.  In fact, park rangers recommend that you hike very early in the day if you are going to the bottom during the summer months, and never, never EVER try to go to the bottom and back in one day.  On the day we were there, the predicted high at the bottom of the canyon was 100 degrees!

When I got back to the top, the temperature was still in the low 70s - about a 10-degree difference from that at the overlook.  What a place!  I hear that the South Rim is crowded and touristy.  Having now been to the North Rim, I'm not sure I will ever see the South Rim.  I would go back to the North Rim in a heartbeat!

What a wonderful way to spend our 43rd anniversary!

Arches National Park

This is our anniversary week - 43 years ago I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to marry my high school sweetheart.  We had both just finished college and Butch was getting ready to start medical school.  Wow... what can I say ...  time flies!!

To celebrate this year, we planned a trip from Montana to the Grand Canyon, with as many stops along the way as we had time to do in the one week we had scheduled.  We left Big Sky right after church and drove south through Idaho, Salt Lake City, and then headed back east to Price, Utah. 

The road to this little town is a beautiful drive.  The further east we went, the more mountain cliffs we saw!  Just outside of Price, we drove through a high mountain pass and could see a coal vein running through the rock.  Sure enough, at the end of the pass was the coal-fired energy plant, one of three in this area and a major employer in the region.  We had driven about 450 miles, and had a nice hotel room waiting for us in Price, so we had a good meal, a good night's rest, and started out the next morning for our 1st National Park destination - Arches National Park - just outside of Moab, Utah.

Years ago, I flew from Dallas to Salt Lake City late in the day, and could not take my eyes off the brilliant red rocks over which we were flying.  It was really an amazing experience - eerily spiritual.  Since that time, I had always wanted to see this part of the country from the ground. 

Arches National Park is the land of red rocks, but that's only part of the story.  This area is a virtual pancake stack of rock, miles thick, each layer representing a different environment that existed here in the past.  A layer of limestone might represent the presence of an inland sea; a section of sandstone indicates a period of wind-blown dunes from a drier time, and a layer of shale tells of a swampy river floodplain ruled by dinosaurs and huge trees.  Indeed, there were many times during this day that I could vividly imagine myself in the valley of dinosaurs roaming through this land.

I knew of the vast inland sea that once covered this third of the country.  What I didn't know was that over the billions of years that this planet has evolved, there have been some 30 seas that have risen and fallen in this area.  Each time, another layer of rock has been deposited, and every year since, the wind has eroded the sandstone layers to form these beautiful arches.  It's a living geology museum through which we wandered for the entire day.

The red rocks, as one might suspect, are deposits of iron that have oxidized or "rusted", and it is the predominant color of the arches in the park.  The Delicate Arch in this picture is the must stunning example of this process of oxidation and erosion.

But, this view of the Fiery Furnace, in another section of the park, shows many other colors.   The white to tan threads in the rock indicate  an accumulation of organic acids dissolving the iron and bleaching the rock.  The turquoise-colored rocks were created when volcanic ash settled into a large alkaline lake - an environment with very little oxygen.  This tapestry of colors is frankly stunning!

In addition to the arches, two other formation types are created by the process of wind erosion - spires and fins.  At Park Avenue, aptly named for the canyon of skyscrapers one experiences when standing on Park Avenue in Manhattan, a series of fins stand like giants, reaching 1,000 feet into the sky.  Wind and water in the form of ice have worn away once thick rocks into these formations.  With time and the continuing process of erosion, these fins will be the arches of the future/
.

In another section, spires and balanced rocks present more evidence of the effect of time and natural forces on this landscape.  This balanced rock, precariously perched on a thin spire, was at the beginning of one of our favorite hikes.  From the base of this rock, we hiked up to the North Window arch, then around to the South Window arch and on around to the back side of both arches.  Most of the trails are paved, but this hike around the back side of these arches was just a foot trail marked by rock cairns and we only met a handful of other hikers on the trail.  The quiet beauty of this landscape was a wonderful treat.

Driving out of the park, we caught a nice view of the Moab Fault, a 2,500 foot displacement in the earth through which the main road from Price to Moab now runs.  Just a few miles to the east is the rather touristy town of Moab, but we managed to find an excellent new restaurant with a beautiful patio and waterfall, and wonderful menu.

On to the Grand Canyon tomorrow!