I am just back from a wonderful 10-day river trip in Grand Canyon with the Grand Canyon Association Field Institute. Only 12 persons and great weather and many stops along the way. Enjoy the pictures!
***And my 24 day Private Jet trip Around the World begins September 27 so please check back for updates from the North Coast of Peru, Easter Island, American Samoa, the Great Barrier Reef Australia, Angkor Wat Cambodia, Taj Majal, Petra, Serengeti Plains, and Marrakech, Morocco! See the full itinerary
here.***
A new stop at river mile 12 reveals this view upstream toward Soap Creek Rapid.
Professor John Warme of Colorado School of Mines showed me this fantastic fossil stop in the Redwall Limestone near 24-1/2 Mile Rapid.
Fossil coral in the Redwall.
Alternate light and dark colored beds in the Redwall Limestone near South Canyon.
It's autumn so the tarantulas are on the move.
Redwall Cavern at river mile 33.
A fossil crinoid in A boulder at Redwall cavern.
We had some rain but it wasn't a deal breaker. It was just enough to usher in the autumn season.
Writing in the guidebooks in the evening after a day of exploring.
Comanch Point towers over the upper Tanner Beach.
Sand and grass on the Tanner Beach.
View of Tanner Rapid.
A boulder of the Nankoweap Formation, the least known rock unit in Grand Canyon. Only 300 feet thick and in the most inaccessible depths of the canyon, I have never really looked at this un it.
Well-rendered petroglyphs on a river boulder.
The contact of the orange Hakatai Shale and overlying Shinumo Quartzite near Hance Rapid. These rocks are part of the Grand Canyon Supergroup.
The well-photographed dike within the Hakatai Shale above Hance Rapid.
Another little seen rock unit - the Hotauta Conglomerate - forms the base of the Grand Canyon Supergroup.
Super varnished river cobble and Vishnu Schist above Bright Angel Creek.
This beautifully patterned Grand Canyon.rattlesnake
(Crotalus organus abyssus) never moved from its place in the 13 hours we were at this camp.
We had clear water in the river until Kanab Creek kicked in some brown sediment from the rains up north.
The eroding sandbanks displayed beautiful
climbing ripple marks. These formed in eddies in the preceding November's controlled floods from Glen Canyon Dam. Flow direction to the right.
At the mouth of Havasu Creek. Note there blue-green water entering the muddy river (bottom).
Fern grotto in Havasu Creek.
Barrel cactus above Lava Falls Rapid.
Pumskin Spring travertine wall with colorful growth on it.
We had clear water in the river until Kanab Creek kicked in some brown sediment from the rains up north.
