The Grand Canyon – 8th to 11th November 2009

From Lake Powell the Colorado River flows through Marble Canyon and into the Grand Canyon National Park. Around 40 miles of the canyon is easily accessible from paved roads in the National Park, although the Canyon is some 270 river miles long (about 140 linear miles). The size is difficult to comprehend from the pictures alone, so a few more words than usual are required.

From the east the river meanders through the wide valley (average width is 10 miles and the river is 300ft wide).

A major feature of the Canyon is the depth (average 6,000 ft – over a mile). The river has cut down through numerous layers of rock over tens of thousands of years and distinct layers are visible with dark granite like rock in the layer at the base.

Before the Lake Powell Dam was built an estimated 86 million tons of sand and stone was carried through the canyon each year, cutting deeper as it went. These solids are now retained in Lake Powell which will become completely clogged in between 100 and 300 years.

The light coloured band on the far side of the canyon is about 600 ft below the cliff top. In many areas the cliff top is not protected and there is a steep 300ft drop.

 

The iron oxide rich red rock layers come to life at sunset in a vivid red-orange display. Again the camera proves inadequate to capture the full view.

 

The north rim of the valley as shown is more heavily eroded than the south where the main access routes are to be found.  Again the red rock starts about 600ft below the cliff top and in the picture below the bottom 1,000 ft cannot be seen.

Looking down into the valley is what you do most of the time. If you are very fit an over night hike to the bottom and back is possible.

 

Look very carefully at the picture above and, on top of the rocks in the centre of the picture, you will see four people standing behind a rail.

That same piece of rock is now in the top right corner of this picture.

 

The first cliff is about 300ft.

 

 

 

The walkers are on a trial near the top of the next 300ft cliff face.

 

 

 

To get a better feel for the scale of the canyon we went for a walk “under the rim” on the Bright Angel trail.

 

 

After an hour we had descended 600ft to the red rock layer and walked about 2.5 miles.

 

The trial continued over 10 miles further and another 4,000ft down.

 

 

 

 

After 3 days around and in the canyon we had taken a glimpse of a small section of it and were just beginning to understand just how big it really is….

VERY BIG INDEED!