GIant Whale Fossil Found in Peru

Researchers were recently working in the desert badlands of coastal Peru and unearthed the skull of a giant toothed whale. The deposits that held the skull were middle Miocene in age (about 12 million years ago) and the teeth were enormous. Follow this link for pictures, diagrams and a short video by the head researcher. Wow!

Schultz Fire Mostly Contained; Fantastic Movie of Landslide in Italy

The Schultz fire here in Flagstaff is now 60% contained and crews are just mopping up.

But look at this movie of a landslide that happened in Italy this past January. It is fantastic.

Other Blog Photos of the Scultz Fire

Friends have been finding and passing along some good blogs and photos about the fire here. Check this one out. Imagine taking a hike to Humphrey's Peak and seeing it blow up right in front of you.

Looks like the fire is getting into the mop-up stage now. 50% containment and some crews moving out to the next flare-up somewhere out west.

New Shots of the Schultz Fire

From 39,000 feet. The red X is where Wayne and Helen's house is. Thanks to whoever sent these.

It looks like the Peaks are on fire here but it is the hlls east of them.

Same here.

Map of the burn area and the days it torched. Blue June 20, Pink June 21, Red June 23, orange June 24

Like a volcano! (Photo by Lorraine B. Elder)

Update on the Schultz Fire

We hear the tanker planes and helicopters flying overhead as they battle the fire. It is at 12,000 acres and counting. One of our citizens says it best below.

The following pictures are from Chuck LaRue and give you a sense for how this thing "blew up" on Sunday. Helen and I were driving back from Prescott while this was the scene.

The wind just grabbed it.

And fanned it hard.

And then it multiplied.

And all anyone could do was get out of the way.

Additional Fire Photo from Winslow - 55 miles Away

A fire this size creates its own weather from sucking in oxygen. It's massive and consuming all in its path.

Fire in Flagstaff

Many of you have been asking about the fires erupting in Flagstaff (they have made the national news). We are fine - both fires are blowing away from us but there are many people in danger on losing homes on the east side of town. My friend sent these pictures from Wyoming (I don't know how her got them but that's just the way the web works these days. Most likely he has a friend here who uploaded them to him and he e-mailed them to me).

I wanted to take pictures with my camera but it went on the blink today and was too frazzled to understand that I needed to change the battery. Anyway, the Hardy fire (June 19) is mostly under control but Helen and I were up on Mars Hill yesterday and watched 200 foot flames consume whole Ponderosa pine trees. It was powerful. As it was blowing right towards east Flagstaff, they put a lot of resources on it and the wind died down overnight. Then, while we were away in Prescott giving a lecture, the Schultz fire erupted (June 20). It is a monster and the photo's below show that. These flames are most likely 250 feet high.

We were camping last July 1 with some high school friends where this one is burning right now. We are fine but concerned for friends who live out east of here.

From Cedar Hill looking north to Mt. Elden.

Same road different angle

Cedar Hill view

Get out of the way - this is hot and out of control.

Dry Lake Hills burning

We'll let you know more later but right now it's our anniversary!

A One Year Anniversary

After celebrating the 100th anniversary of Rainbow Bridge, Helen and I are ready to celebrate a more modest milestone this week - our one year wedding anniversary! It's been a great year for both of us. The economic downturn couldn't have come at a better time - all of my fancy trips overseas did not happen this year. I got to stay in the United States and be with my sweetie! Thank you greedy-housing-bubble-aficianados! Here are few pictures of our year.

A picture from our wedding day at "Ranney Point" on Grand Canyon's South Rim. The flowers Helen picked on the way to the wedding and the heart rock is from the Mt. Everest Base Camp where I proposed to her.


Our pre-wedding parties overlapped for one night in San Diego. My friends gave me the best bachelor party I could ever hope for - a one week road trip through the Southwest!

On our honeymoon at the El Tovar. We had the Presidential Suite which was unbelievable!

High school friends Chris, Orlando, Vince and Wayne at our reception, Ten-X Campground June 28, 2009.

The article that ran on the front page of the Sedona Red Rock News about our engagement.

Helen with her bridesmaid, Barbara Denny at "Ranney Point"

The happy couple celebrates, June 21, 2009

Helen gets our guest room ready for a new paint job.


Wayne doing the same.

Our first Valentines Day dinner as a married couple

At the Arizona Book Publishers Award Ceremony in Phoenix, May, 2009.


In the Zion Narrows, December, 2009. We went up here while I gave a lecture to the Zion Natural History Association.

A crazy picture with my Best Man Don Webster, on a hike down to Phantom Ranch, March, 2009.

With Don Webster's family at Phantom Ranch.

The 100th Anniversary of Rainbow Bridge National Monument

Question: "What's the difference between the English and Americans?"

Answer: "The English think 100 miles is a long way and Americans think 100 years is a long time."

On May 28 to 30, 2010, I was privileged to experience both an English and American view of life as I took part in honoring 100 years for Rainbow Bridge National Monument. I traveled 100 miles (round trip) in a boat to this impressive natural archway, which was created in 1910 by the Presidential proclamation of the infamous William Howard Taft. I was accompanied during this memorable weekend by my lovely wife Helen and our great friend Gary Ladd of Page.

The festivities began on Friday evening, May 28. I presented a lecture, "Ancient Landscapes of the American Southwest" to about 130 people at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center. Chris Eaton, director of the Glen Canyon Natural History Association, estimated that this was the largest crowd ever for a lecture in the rotunda room. It was a rousing success as I shared the secrets of earth history and the Colorado Plateau with an engaging audience. The lecture was my second as an Arizona Road Scholar, under the auspices of the Arizona Humanities Council. This is a wonderful program that puts speakers in front of audiences statewide.

On Saturday, May 29, we hopped in a boat and traveled 50 beautiful miles to Forbidding Canyon and Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Here we met many of the superintendents of the southwestern parks who were also here to celebrate in the commemoration. A big warm thank you to everyone in Page who made this event so special. This includes Joan Mayer, interpretation coordinator for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and superintendent Stan Austin. Have a look at some of the pictures!

Gary and Helen viewing the terrain as we proceed up the lake to Forbidding Canyon. Fortunately, the wind was not howling for the first time in many days.

Gary and Helen at the dock in Forbidding canyon.

Gary is best known as an accomplished photographer of Lake Powell. But he is also a gifted and self taught geologist and knows the country here very well. Here he is showing Helen the contact of two rock formations, the Kayenta Formation below which is overlain by the Navajo Sandstone. This contact played a big role in the creation of Rainbow Bridge.

Visitors walk past the contact of these two rock units, both Jurassic in age. Notice the lush growth near the contact - groundwater can percolate through the sandy rocks of the Navajo but when they travel downward and encounter finer-grained mudstone and shale in the Kayenta, the water is forced out horizontally in springs. These springs allow columbines and other plants to grow in perfusion here. Glen Canyon's videographer, David Rankin, filmed a short segment with me in front of the contact here for the parks podcasts.

That's my foot on top of the Kayenta Formation at the contact. Note the lighter colored cracks in the rock that were infilled with blowing sand as the Navajo dunes crept over this ancient floodplain, some 190 million years ago.

Here's another view of the contact with visitors walking by. Note the very well developed cross-beds in the Navajo Sandstone (top portion of photo). These represent deposition in sand dunes on their leeward side, as sand was migrating from left to right in this view.

Our first view of Rainbow Bridge on May 29. The opening in the bridge is 290 feet high and about 275 wide. Conceivably, a 747 aircraft could fit within this opening - it may not look that big but I used a wide angle lens on this shot. A natural bridge is different from an arch in that a bridge has a stream running under it.

The day was full of history! Here, Harvey Leake, the great grandson of John Weatherill gives a speech to the many dignitaries that assembled here. John Weatherill was part of the "discovery" party in 1909 that first recorded the existence of Rainbow Bridge to the outside world. Harvey related that his great grandfather was well aware that indigenous people knew of the bridge for centuries before and didn't really think of himself as part of a "discovery trip". Still, the existence of this impressive landform was unknown to the outside world until it was photographed and mapped in the same year that Perry arrived at the North Pole.

Another view of Harvey talking to the superintendents of the southwestern parks.

The "official" delegation that commemorated the 100th Anniversary of Rainbow Bridge

Chuck Davis is the district ranger for Rainbow Bridge and his knowledge of the area is incredible. He is a dedicated public servant to this tiny gem in our National Park system.

Glen Canyon NRA superintendent Stan Austin, delivers some very complimentary words to his district ranger. Stan said that Chuck receives more favorable comments about his interaction with the public than any other ranger there.

Interpretive ranger Doug took this photo of Helen and me as we looked at the bridge. Although the monument is now 100 years old, the bridge itself is much older, perhaps tens of thousands of years older. One estimate is that the hole is 30,000 years old with the exposure of the rock on top of the bridge occurring about 120,000 years ago. Both estimates could involve more or less years but you get the idea.

On the way back to Wahweap Marina, I took this reflective shot of Tower Butte. This monolith is a local favorite because of its symmetrical profile. It is underlain by the top of the Navajo Sandstone, the apron below is part of the Carmel Formation, and the upper neck is Entrada Sandstone and a little Morrison Formation. All of these strata were once continuous with other buttes in the area but vertical erosion has isolated this section of rock.

We stopped on an island in the reservoir that is capped with Colorado River gravels. Look how rounded these clasts are. And they contain rock types that could only have come from upstream. The depth below the water here to the old channel of the Colorado is perhaps 600 feet, meaning that these were stranded here by the river somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000 years ago, when the river had not yet cut Glen Canyon. Awesome!

As we admired the old river clasts, we came across a trackway in the Navajo Sandstone. Here Dave and Gary a looking up the old dune face and along the trackway which carries on towards the photographer. Marvels everywhere in this land of rocks!

Final Day of the CR_Evolution Workshop

The third and final day of the workshop was reserved for participants to discuss some of the progress made since the Grand Canyon Symposium in 2000 and to identify those areas that need more work and clarification. It is difficult at this time to say where progress has been made. Certainly the techniques used to glean information out of the sparse deposits has improved. Remember, in 2000 everyone gave their presentations with slides on Kodak carousels (and at the 1964 symposium plate tectonics did not yet exist). But advances have been made.

Andres Aslan and Rex Cole presented information on the evolution of the upper Colorado River. It was in place and flowing towards the Colorado Plateau by about 11 Ma and the evidence comes from Colorado River gravels preserved beneath the lava flows capping Grand Mesa. This is a big move forward to understand the upper river. The question becomes, where did that river go? Was there a lake somewhere on the central Plateau? Or did the river continue south towards Grand Canyon and Hopi Lake? Or as others have suggested, did that river turn north and go into an ancestral Green River. Seems that the answer to one question yields additional unanswerable questions. Still, we now have solid evidence for the existence of an ancestral upper Colorado River flowing onto the Colorado Plateau before 11 Ma.

Regarding the lower river, Kyle House and colleagues presented perhaps the most solid story presented here, concerning the river's history in the reach between Las Vegas and Blythe. They have deposits that show the presence of isolated basins that were sequentially filled with lake water, then breached at bedrock divides producing distinctive outburst flood deposits. They are preserved around the Laughlin/Bullhead City area and cluster in age around 5.5 to 5.0 Ma. Irrefutable evidence (we don't get to use that term too often in this story) for the creation and existence of the higher parts of the lower river. Other work from the area around Anza Borrego shows that reworked fossils from the Colorado Plateau arrived in a delta to the Colorado River by 5.3 Ma. So the picture of the lower river is becoming better known as well.

We are still left however, with the mystery of the Grand Canyon. As reported earlier in this blog, evidence was presented for a Grand Canyon cut to near its present depth by 70 Ma, a truly mind-boggling idea. This flies in the face of other lines of evidence for a much younger canyon but it seems that the old canyon idea will not go away, even with the passing 3 years ago of Don Elston. Some at this workshop questioned how a landform could just sit there for all of that time and not appreciably get bigger (or at least develop a soil or something). Other thermochronologic evidence from John Lee suggested that only a paleovalley (and not a canyon) was developed about 18 Ma over eastern Grand Canyon. These discrepancies will have to be worked out.

Concerning the persistent "Muddy Creek Problem" (no Colorado River sediment is found in the deposit, so there could be no Grand Canyon as recently as 6 Ma), yours truly asked the whole group, "If you were looked towards the Grand Wash Cliffs 6 Ma, what would it look like?" Ivo Lucchitta replied, "A wall of rock across the cliff face". Meaning that there was nothing at all of the canyon at that time. But we now know that the river arrived at its delta only 700,000 years later (5.3 Ma). Is it reasonable to assume that we could go from no river to the one we have today in such a short time? Only if spillover is right I guess. If we could answer this one question, (and if you attended the workshop and want to give me your best guess) we might be on our way to understanding if headward erosion, spillover, or sapping is what caused the outburst floods downstream from here.

Another new focus this year was the presentation that rather recent mantle-driven uplift may have affected the southwestern edge of the Plateau in just the last 5 Ma. Presented by Karl Karlstrom, this work suggests that movement on the Toroweap and Hurricane faults in western Grand Canyon may be the result of uplift to the east where removal of the Farallon slab has allowed the hot mantle to heat the overlying crust. The uplift could be what is driving the incision of the Grand Canyon according to this view.

Many came here to bury the idea of spillover from a presumed Hopi Lake (Lake Bidahochi if you prefer). But John Douglass gave a rousing defense of its possibility, even showing the group that in every geology textbook surveyed, not one mention of spillover was included, while stream piracy, antecedence, and superposition are all mentioned. He argued that we as a science are not trained to appreciate the role that spillover can have on the landscape. And given the evidence from the lower Colorado River where spillover seems to be verified, one does have to wonder.

Speaking of unknowns, karst processes were also presented as possible players in the formation of the Grand Canyon. Carol Hill and Laura Crossey did not collaborate on such an idea, yet their results seemed to dovetail toward the roll that groundwater might have played in creating the canyon. In spite of their endorsements for this process, the community remains largely in favor of the surface evidence only, seeming to make John Douglass's point about inherent biases in our training.

At the end of the third day, it was decided that this group should meet more ofter to share data and ideas. Sue Beard motioned that since 2014 will be the 50th anniversary of the first symposium in 1964, that we meet then. It was seconded and passed by those in attendance! So the topic will not soon go away.

I was impressed with the respectful manner that most everyone brought to this workshop. Although very observant ones may have seen a few brief moments of impatience towards those who hold certain disfavored ideas, these were very minor and did not disrupt the general tenor of the community. Everyone here obviously loves their work and would not be involved with it were it not so satisfying. The future looks promising for more cooperation and coordination in this effort to understand the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.

2nd Day of the CR_Evolution Workshop

The 2nd day of this workshop proved to be even more exciting than the first since the topics covered the area of the Grand Canyon specifically and the upper Colorado River in Colorado. Much of the discussion again focused on the evidence gleaned from studying the thermochronology of the rocks (basically studying when they were uncovered by erosion). At this workshop, everyone gets their five minutes but then there are hour-long or even 90 minute discussions where everyone in the room can return to ideas that were presented in a talk. In this way, important concepts are revisited and discussed by all in the room.

I have been impressed at how focused these discussions have been. I think everyone who is attending probably felt that this might be an impossible outcome from this workshop since there are so many divergent views. But the discussions have been as enlightening as the individual talks. Sue Beard discussed the evidence for the Kingman Arch, a pre-Basin and Range high that sat southwest of the Grand Canyon. She showed an image that depicted some Laramide (70 to 40 Ma) paleovalleys that were cut into Tonto Group rocks on the southern Grand Wash Cliffs. (I had just flown over Music Mountain a week before and had seen these remnant valleys from the air). These paleovalleys came off of the Kingman Arch and flowed northeast towards the Grand Canyon (but perhaps, before the canyon was here). See the image below from their talk.

Image from Sue Beard and Jim Faulds workshop abstract showing the area of the Kingman Arch (heavy dashed line, left); three paleovalleys with their names trending onto the Colorado Plateau (small dashed lines); outcrops of the 18.5 Ma Peach Springs Tuff (dark pink) and its suspected source caldera (light pink); and the western end of the Grand Canyon (upper right). The parallel colored lines are the southwestern limit of various Grand Canyon strata.

Ivo Lucchitta showed similar space images from near the Echo Cliffs where, northeast of The Gap, there is a sinuous high-standing ridge of gravel that trends northeast for about 35 miles. Ivo thinks that this may be an ancient main-stem river channel (the San Juan?) that flowed toward the lower end of the Little Colorado River. Some of the clasts in the deposit are identified as coming from the San Juan Mts. in Colorado. Rich Hereford who studied this same deposit 30 year ago thinks it may just be coming from Black Mesa with the clasts being reworked into this.


Composite Landsat and DEM image of Crooked Ridge from Lucchitta and Holm workshop abstract. Note the Echo Cliffs and The Gap (lower left) and Black Mesa (upper right). Crooked Ridge is a sinuous line of gravel between the two. Ive believes this river ran down the monocline of the Echo Cliffs and then turned west into the Little Colorado River.

My name was on two abstracts at this workshop but both of my co-authors gave the talks. (I've been busy transcribing notes). Ron Blakey showed evidence for the age of the Mogollon Rim (> 27 Ma) and we suggested that this feature could have trended all the way to the western end of the Grand Canyon. Carol Hill summarized our work concerning the Laramide to present paleogeography of the Grand Canyon, which includes northeast-directed rivers in some portions of the canyon, and a karst connection between the Marble Canyon section and the rest of Grand Canyon. This karst connection is a tough sell to a group specializes in surface processes but Carol is on to something that may be overlooked in this story.

Having said that, one of the big surprises to me at this workshop is the amount of evidence being presented for the Colorado River going across the Kaibab Arch well before it was integrated with the lower river. This idea means that the ancestral river would have had to leave its present track in the vicinity of Kanab Creek (destination unknown). The time-frame for this is between 20 and 6 Ma. This gets around the problem of how did the river cross the upwarp but still leaves its exit as a problem.

What else? Gosh there was so much. It looks like the Colorado River "instantly appeared" into its delta area around 5.3 Ma. Lots of great evidence for this. And Charles Ferguson really came up with an outrageous idea (not wrong, just outrageous). He thinks that a main-stem river was headed from the basin of Lake Bidahochi (Winslow area) to the Pacific Northwest through the Green and Snake rivers! Not only that, but he believes that this system was intact until integration of the river through Grand Canyon at about 5.3 Ma! That might be tough sell but Charles thinks he has the evidence based on fossil fish assemblages and the gravels. I'll be reporting once more for the 3rd and final day of this workshop.

1st Day of the CR_Evolution Workshop

The first day of the Colorado River Workshop has now ended and things are as I suspected they might be for me - exhaustive! I got home at 7:30 last night and couldn't decide if I was wide awake ready for more, or just merely ready for bed. It didn't matter - I woke up at some unruly hour in the middle of the night and couldn't get the river or the canyon out of my head. I missed my morning walk but am using the extra time to write a few words about some of my impressions. I'll be back at the 2nd day of the proceedings at 8 AM today and am listed as a co-author on two of the talks.

Overall, everyone was pretty good natured about presenting their ideas, although the two sets of black boxing gloves visible on one of the entry tables wasn't entirely a joke. At least no one screamed but there was a few hearty discussions concerning the lower river (downstream from Hoover Dam). The format of the Workshop is like this: An agenda has been made and you can read it here. Each speaker gets five minutes to present their findings or ideas and then five minutes of discussion after that. That's not a typo. It's five minutes. And fortunately it's policed pretty stringently. It's enough time to show three or four slides although others push that to ten (and then end up being surprised that the five minutes went by so quickly). A cell phone type ringer goes off when each five minutes are up. It's a pretty good system and keeps things moving without having to endure long-winded talks.

There was at least one earth-shattering idea presented in the morning. Brian Wernicke of Cal Tech proposes that a river carved the entire Grand Canyon to within a few hundred meters of its present depth between 80 and 70 million years ago! Not only that, but this river was going in the the opposite direction towards Colorado and Wyoming. For those of you who have read "Carving Grand Canyon" this may not seem like such a new idea, since Don Elston and Andre Potochnik have also proposed such a vision. But Wurnicke uses a technique called thermochronology, which essentially measures when the now removed, overlying rocks were stripped off the ones we can see in the canyon today. (The two previous ideas spoke to surface evidence only). Wernicke has been a giant in the study of the Basin and Range for the last 20 years and this is his first entry into the Grand Canyon debate.

He calls his river the California River (get it - the modern Colorado River flows into California but the ancient California River flowed into Colorado). You can read his abstract here (although it's unfortunate he did not include a map shown in his talk that depicts the California River going from the Sierra's through the Grand Canyon exactly in the alignment familiar to us today and on into northern Colorado. (Remember the Sierra's were much closer to Grand Canyon before Nevada was stretched into the Basin and Range only after 20 Ma. The Sierra's in this depiction were in the approximate position of Las Vegas). I hope to obtain a copy of this map when I see him today.

On the other end of the time spectrum, Kyle House and colleagues provide outstanding evidence from the lower Colorado River between Hoover Dam and Blythe for the catastrophic filling of basins that overflowed sequentially downstream. These basins were separated by bedrock sills and essentially mirror the dammed basins today (Lake Mojave, Lake Havasu, etc.) All of this occurred in the 5 Ma time frame. You can read their abstract here. This seems to argue for a very young river, at least for its lower reach. Amazing the two frames between Wernicke and House.

Wish I had time to write more this morning but I gotta go hear more. Stay tuned.

Workshop on the Evolution of the Colorado River next week in Flagstaff

Next week, on May 24, 25 and 26 about 60 geologists will convene in Flagstaff to discuss, debate and pontificate about how the Colorado River may have come into existence. Although there likely will not be a single, defining answer at the end of all this discussion, the field does seem to move incrementally towards greater truths about the mysteries and puzzles of the Southwest's master stream.

Many of the old names will be familiar to those who have poked around in this everlasting debate; Ivo Lucchitta and Dick Young being the main two and the only ones who also attended the symposiums in 1964 and 2000. But many more newer faces will certainly liven up the atmosphere. Look here for a list of the attendees and the abstracts which have been submitted. I will be in attendance for all of the proceedings and hope to post blogs each and every day as the events happen. However, a gathering of minds such as this is bound to be an exhaustive affair and I make no promises! Do look here as often as you can and I will post many interesting readings from the workshop.

Rafting the Rapids and Geology of the Salt River in Central Arizona's Transition Zone

With all of the winter snowfall we've had in Arizona this year, the rivers are running really big this spring. I was fortunate to receive an invitation to run the Salt River with friends during the period from April 25 to May 1. It had been 18 years since I was on the "River of Rocks" and it was a thrill to see it again after long time. The river is rocky, wild, and unpredictable but our group was well experienced and we had a marvelous time. I was the only geologist along on the trip but Bryan Brown covered the ornithology and river history, while Gary Reznick and Lee Midgley paddled their whitewater canoes. The pictures tell the story of this river through time.

A first view of the Salt River and its canyon near the US Highway 60 bridge, north of Globe, Arizona. The canyon is sometimes referred to as the "Little Grand Canyon". Shown are two of the first rapids, Bump and Grind (top) and Maytag (below). The rock cliff in the foreground is part of the Dripping Springs Quartzite (Proterozoic).

Looking downstream from above Overboard Rapid. The rocks belong to the Proterozoic Apache Group, a sequence of strata time correlative with the Unkar Group in Grand Canyon. Black rock near the river is a diabase intrusive dated at 1,100 Ma, gold colors above this are Dripping Springs Quartzite, capped by whitish Mescal Limestone (with another diabase sill sandwiched in here), and Troy Quartzite capping the skyline.

A wider view to the northwest. This canyon and river are exquisite landscapes that are rarely seen or visited in Arizona. The land north of the river belongs to the White Mountain Apache Indian Tribe.

Bryan and I found this rather cryptic lava flow (at least from river level) perched well above the modern river channel but perhaps occupying an old alignment of the river bed. Dating of this flow might reveal the rate of downcutting for the Salt River here.

A view of the lava flow from our camp at Grumman Rapid.

After running Overboard Rapid on our second day, we entered a narrow gorge cut into the intrusive diabase. This magma forced its way between layers of quartzite and created a space for itself while in the subsurface. Grand Canyon exposes a similar diabase intrusion of the same age, lending credence to the idea that the Apache Group and Unkar Group rocks are related.

Downstream view of the rocks above Cibeque Creek, a major side drainage off of the Mogollon Rim to the north.
Gary paddles in front of the famous Salt Banks, a spring deposit of travertine and various salts that "erupt" right next to the river. Some believe that the Salt River was named for this spring deposit but a more likely story is that the river made agricultural fields salty throigh time.

Overhang of colorful travertine above an alcove in the spring.

Unusual spring deposits at the Salt Banks.

An upstream view back towards the Salt Banks from Walnut Canyon. The scenery is fantastic.

Spring was in full bloom for us on this trip. I photographed this blooming cactus on a side hike up n Walnut Canyon.

On day three we first encountered the Ruin Granite, a body of rock that is worn smooth by the runoff on the Salt River. The granite was emplaced about 1,400 Ma at a depth of five to ten miles. It was then uplifted and eroded before the Apache Group rocks buried it, beginning about 1,200 Ma.

View upstream of the Ruin Granite gorge at the mouth of Canyon Creek, another marvelous Mogollon Rim drainage from the north. We traveled with another group from Ridgeway, Colorado for a few days.

View downstream to Canyon Creek Rapid in the granite gorge. Note how scoured the rocks appear above the river. Between January 21 and 24 of this year, the Salt River experienced an enormous flood that reached 90,000 cfs above the Roosevelt reservoir. We saw evidence for this tremendous flood everywhere on our trip.

The juxtaposition of classic Sonoran Desert vegetation and scenery with a perennial river like the Salt is like no other river trip I know of (except the Salt's cousin, the Verde River). I must have taken over 200 photos of these enormous cactus near the river.

See what I mean!

The Ruin Granite is a very coarse-grained rock with well exposed crystals of orthoclase feldspar (pink), plagioclase feldspar (white), and quartz (milky). Here, a few stringers of epidote (pistachio green) were found.

Sculpted exposures of Ruin Granite up in Canyon Creek make for an other-worldly view.

Exiting the gorge above Gleason Flats, we got a view of majestic Canyon Creek Butte, capped by the Apache Leap Tuff, which was erupted about 18.5 Ma in a paleocanyon that trended northeast. More will be said about this Oligocene/early Miocene canyon later.

After three miles across the open country of Gleason Flats, the river enters another canyon cut into the Redmond Formation, a suite of metamorphosed ash flows that are the oldest rocks in the Salt River Canyon. They are dated at 1,750 Ma. These rocks, along with the overlying Hess Canyon Group, are the less-altered cousins of the Vishnu Schist in the Grand Canyon. Again, note the scouring of the gorge immediately above the river. We estimated that the water was over 30 feet higher during the flood than seen here. The noise must have been deafening. The power must have been unreal.

Lee paddling her canoe downstream from Eye of the Needle Rapid.

Redmond Formation sculpted by the Salt River above Black Rock Rapid.

A view of Black Rock Rapid from our scout vantage point on river right. We scouted more than 12 rapids in the course of our trip.

Gary paddles for a closer view of the Whitetail Conglomerate, an Oligocene/early Miocene (∼30 to 20 Ma) valley fill deposit that preserves an older canyon before the modern Salt River Canyon. Rivers in this area used to travel northeast and these gravels help to document that earlier drainage alignment.

Scouting Pinball Rapid with the Redmond Formation along the river.

Brian pulls on the oars of our raft as we negotiate the swirling currents of the Salt River.

Lee paddling beneath the upturned beds of the Hess Canyon Group. These are Proterozoic sedimentary rocks whose metamorphism was slight enough that we can discern their original bedding and depositional characteristics. The same rocks in the Grand Canyon were cooked and pressurized into schist and gneiss and it is more difficult to see what they were originally.

Downstream view to the narrow gap where Quartzite Falls is located. Note the upturned beds of the White Ledges Quartzite (Hess Canyon Group). The Salt River is having a difficult time excavating the river channel here through this resistant bed of rock. Thus, the falls are created where the river pours over the ledge. However, in the early 1990's someone dynamited the falls which are now runnable but still difficult to run.

Gary and Lee paddling in the open country near Horseshoe Bend.

The wind was blowing very hard this day nd I found an excellent example of adhesion ripples on the river bank. These form when dry sand blows across wet sand and they adhere the the surface creating this unusual pattern. Adhesion ripples are found in sandstones that are hundreds of millions of years old.

Rockinstraw Mountain (elev. 5385 ft.) as seen from Horseshoe Bend. It is capped by Apache Leap Tuff but is visibly downfaulted back towards the photographer. This faulting documents the progressive lowering of the Basin and Range to the southwest of the Salt River Canyon. This lowering is what caused the drainage reversal from the old northeast-directed flow in the paleocanyon to southwest flow in the modern Salt River.

Pinnacles of rock related to the eruption of the Apache Leap Tuff 18.5 Ma. Erosion by the Salt River has exposed this former vent for these Cascade-style volcanoes.

Close-up view of the pinnacles, which are now closed to all stopping because of nearby nesting bald eagles.

And just around the corner, we saw two of the eagles by the side of the river.

Can you stand it? Another view of the Whitetail Conglomerate just upstream from Coon Creek. The unsorted nature of the deposit (where boulders are mixed in with pebbles and sand) is striking and probably represents deposition in nearby alluvial fans within the old paleocanyon.

A casualty of the January 21 flood on the Salt River. This old giant was undercut when its substrate was removed in the flood. But small shoots of green leaves were seen growing out of the toppled tree.

Shh! A secret waterfall and pool located in Chalk Creek.

Another Sonoran Desert mastepiece along the lower Salt River run.

A baby saguaro cactus growing next to a crumbling boulder of Ruin Granite. In some areas, the plagioclase feldspars weather out of the granite, causing the orthclase and quartz to become liberated as grus on the desert floor.

View downstream to the Klondike Cliffs and the edge of the Salt River Canyon Wilderness. The ride of the cliffs is capped by the Apache Leap Tuff.

Bryan stands next to an old guardian that we estimated to be about 38 feet high. Wow!

The last narrows before the take-out are carved into the Apache Leap Tuff near the confluence with Pinal Creek.

The open country near the Highway 288 bridge, where the Roosevelt reservoir was constructed on the Salt River in 1911. It was a fabulous trip with good weather, food and company. I wish everyone could see it.