Day 9: Sunday, May 20th, 2004

The North Rim of the Grand Canyon

By Tim Graves

Kiabab, Toroweap, Coonino, Hermit, Supai, Redwall, Muav, Bright ANgel, Tapeats, Vishnu. Before the trip Ron said that we would know all of these. None of us believed him. I guess that's the difference between studyuing geology in the classroom and seeing it in the field.

We awoke on the morning of the 20th on the sandy shores of Lake Powell at Lone Rock campground. I slept outside the ent that night and woke up with a sleepng bag full of wind blown sand.  This day marked the point on the trip past which all of our possessions were saturated with fine red sand. I scraped it out of my ears and began to break down camp.

At about 9:30 am we drove into Page and bought some groceries before our drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I had intentionally delayed volunteering for narrative duty so that I could write about the Grand Canyon.  I wanted to have something to rave about; something to blow me away.

After leaving Page, we made three stops before arriving at the North Rim. The first was at a scenic view spot along US 89. We pulled off the road at 10:20 am. Marble Canyon, just upstream from the Grand Canyon on the Colorado, was visible in the valley below. We were standing on the Permian Kiabab limestone. The mesas dotted in front of us exposed the greenish, slope-forming Chinle shale, the deep red bedded Kayenta sandstone and the massive oragne Navajo sandstone.

Our next stop was at noon. We pulled off 89 just past Marble Canyon. Still standing on the Kiabab we could see the Moenkopi, a formation of interbedded shale and fine sandstone, the Shinarump conglomerate, as well as the Chinle, the Kayenta and the Navajo.

We continued our drive westward on 89 toward The Canyon. Around noon, we were able to see the East Kiabab Monocline clearly in front of us. At 12:40 pm, 89 turned and began a series of switchbacks up into the monocline. About halfway up the monocline, we stopped at a pulloff. The Moenkopi was exposed at the outcrop. There were normal faults dissecting the exposure with drag folds apparent by the fault surface. Cataclastites could also be seen in the fault zone.

We set up camp at the North Rim Campground about 2:00 pm and headed to the Grand Canyon Lodge for lunch. The food was nearly as spectacular as the view. After lunch we scoped out the gift shop for a while and then got back into the vans for the tourists eye view of the Gand Canyon.

At 4:10 pm we made our first Canyon viewing stop at Point Imperial. At 8803 ft. this is the highest elevation from which to view the Canyon. The wind was gusting so hard that we had to keep our hands on our hats to prevent them from blowing away, and the pagesof my notebook flapped madly in the wind. From this vantage point, we could see rocks from the Precambrian basement up to the Permian Kiabab limestone. The desert on the other side of the Canyon looks perfectly flat and was dotted with the shadows of clouds drifting above. What struck me most was how abruptly the landscape changed from flat desert to more than a mile of exposed rock down to the Colorado.

Because the Grand Canyon dissects a monocline, the North and South Rims are offset.  The Kiabab Limestone, the uppermost unit of the Canyon is nearly 2800 feet lower on the South Rim than on the North Rim.  Because the North Rim is higher, it receivesmore precipitation. The trees at Point Imperial are Ponderosa Pines, White Firs and Douglas Firs. The Firs can be seen extending growing on the more developed soils on the North Rim about 1000 feet down in the Canyon, where they are replaced by Pinon Pines and Junipers. They extend down further on north-facing slopes and in small shaded gullies. There is no prominent vegetation visible on the South Rim from Point Imperial, only small desert shrubs survive in the thin soils found there. The heavier precipitation on the North Rim results in more intense erosion.

Our next Canyon viewpoint was Encartada Picnic area. From here, the Colorado could be seen as a small green strip barely visible between walls of rock.  Seeing the river here put the Canyon in a new perspective.  This tiny green strip is responsible for chainsawing through two billion years of rock.

We took views of the Canyon at Roosevelt Point aqnd Walhalla Overlook next. Our elevation decreased as we drove along and units that looked miniscule at Point Imperial began to show their true size as we were able to view them more closely.  Before we reached our final point at Cape Royal, we stopped at an unnamed pulloff to view Angel's Window. We were able to climb on our hands and kneees and hang our noses off the edge of the Canyon. Being able to look several hundred feet down to the nearest ledge was a rush unlike I have ever experienced.

Our final view was Cape Royal. From there we could see Angel's Window closely. Features such as Vishnu Temple, Comanche Point, Coronado Butte, Horseshoe Mesa and Wotan's Throne are clearly visible from here. It looked as though I could throw a rock about halfway across the Canyon from Cape Royal. In fact, that would require throwning a rock about 4 miles. One's sense of proportion is distorted when looking across 8 and a half miles of Canyon.

As we viewed the Grand Canyon from various points, the formations changed in thickness becasue of our perspective but also becasue layers pinch and swell. Some are visible from certain points and some are not, yet the layers remain. Vishnu, Tapeats, Bright Angel, Mauv, Redwall, Supai, Hermit, Toroweap and Kiabab.