Fall Trip to Southeast Utah

I've been out of computer range for the past two weeks but am now back up and running. This past weekend I traveled to a remote place in Southeast Utah where the fall colors were in full glory and we poked around a few great and familiar places.

From our camp, we had a view to the south down into Comb Wash, named after the obvious geologic feature on the left, Comb Ridge. This feature is one of the Colorado Plateau's famous monoclines, a flexure in previously flat-lying strata. This structure was formed during the Laramide Orogeny about 60 million years ago but when the rocks in this view were folded, they were still many thousands of feet in the subsurface. More recent erosion has exposed this view. The cliff-former on the left is the Wingate Sandstone and the valley trailing aware from the camera is cut into soft formations like the Chinle, Moenkopi, and Organ Rock. If the geology doesn't interest you, note the colorful cottonwood trees in the valley floor.

Turning 180 degrees from the photo above reveals a view of the Comb Ridge monocline towards the north. Here you can easily see the flex of the strata, which from left to right are the Cedar Mesa Sandstone (light colored sandstone in upper left), the Organ Rock and Moenkopi formations (directly above and far behind the flat sandstone slab in the center), a very thin ledge of the Shinarump Conglomerate (barely visible), and the Chinle Formation in the upper right.

This is Tower House ruin located near Comb Wash. We hiked to here from camp on our first day in the field. It is a well-preserved ruin that was built atop some interesting deposits. Look just below the obvious window and you'll note a slightly cemented conglomerate. We saw this deposit filling other alcoves nearby. My interpretation was that this wash was dammed by a landslide and that rocky debris accumulated within the alcoves behind a natural reservoir. When the landslide was breached, the streams in this area began to scour out the deposit but remnants were left in the alcoves.

A granary near Tower House ruin. The many ruins that date from the Pueblo II and Pueblo III periods (about 950 to 1300 AD) utilize alcoves for shelter and sun aspect. Passive solar heating (winter) and shade (summer) was well-known to these people.

A petroglyph on the wall at Tower House Ruin. By chipping off the slightly darkened and varnished surface on the outside of the rock, a lighter image can be seen.

On day two we drove to the north and explored an area known as Whiskers Draw, where aspens were growing on the valley floor.

Hiking on slickrock is a favorite past time of mine and here we are angling up to view  more surprises.

A view of an old dwelling that dates from about 1250 AD.

Here is an iside view of the old dwelling with roof beams and latillas.

Hand prints were also evident, both positive (above) and negative (below)

A small ruin perched on ledge near famous Cave 7

A view from the other side of the same house

This is the Cave 7 site. It was here in 1893 that Richard Weatherill came to the understanding that a previous group (before the Puebloans) had lived in these caves. The name of these earlier peoples would become the Basketmakers.

Group shot taken near Comb Ridge with the Abajo Mountains in the background. Left to right Bill Leibfried, John Shortridge, Don Webster, Chuck LaRue, John Grahame, George Abbott, and Wayne Ranney. There are not many things better than having friends like these to go exploring with. And that deserves an exclamation point!

My 10-Day Rafting Trip Through Grand Canyon - 2011

This years 10-day rafting trip in Grand Canyon was one of the best ever with an enthusiastic group that was treated to some of the best "earth on show". We had some spectacular weather that was challenging at times but never failed to deliver top notch scenery, waterfalls and comfortable hiking. I still have a few spaces for the trip in 2012. If you've ever wanted to see Grand Canyon with a geologist, check out these pictures from this years trip.

At Lees Ferry, the start of all Grand Canyon river trips, the Kaibab Limestone makes its first appearance above river level (the whitish beds beneath the red Moenkopi Fm.). In just 65 miles it will tower between 5,000 and 6,000 feet above the river. The river drops just 500 feet in this distance but the rocks rise up at an average rate of 70 feet per mile.

The first day on the river with brilliant sunshine

The first appoearance of the Coconino Sandstone above the river at mile 4 below Lees Ferry. The Coconino was deposited as ancient dunes along a shoreline.

 The skies opened up in Marble Canyon and we were witness to the rare treat of red waterfalls!

The pictures cannot capture the sound and smell of this red rain, coming off the upper slopes of Hermit and Supai formations.

 The water poured off the cliffs in great leaps.

 There were literally hundreds of falls within a three mile stretch of the river.

 Our boatmen, Brandon and Amity, admired the show as well.

And then, just as suddenly as it had started, the sun came out to illuminate the recently watered cliff faces.

 From the mouth of Saddle Canyon looking upstream on the Colorado River

Back inside Saddle Canyon - one of my favorite places in all of Grand Canyon

The water this morning was red from the previous days rain

 Can you spot the channel fill of Temple Butte Limestone in the wall of Saddle Canyon? It is shaped like a smiley face and contains Devonian estuary deposits.

The famous "brain rocks" of Carbon Creek Canyon. These are Precambrian age stromatolites or algae fossils. The algae would greow a thin  mat on the shallow sea floor and then sediment would thinly cover the living organism, which then sent more filaments upward to create a new mat. And on and on and on, through time.

A recent flood left behind a strange, black colored deposit on the bed of Carbon Creek that partially buried the vegetation that is growing along the small creek.
.

It was very soft and behaved like quicksand when walked upon. Here Laurie, gets stuck within it.

The famous upturned beds of Tapeats Sandstone along the Butte Fault in Carbon Canyon. Some young earth creationists use this outcrop in an attempt to show that the sediment was not lithified when deformed but other explanations (such as ductile deformation) can also explain this arrangement of strata.

These are the rocks that the stromatolites come from - the Galeros Formation in the Chuar Valley

Storm clouds hover near Papago and Zuni viewpoints on the South Rim, September 14, 2011

Clouds within the canyon on Zoroaster Temple

Close-up of Zoroaster Temple

Riding the river within the Granite Gorge of Grand Canyon

Deformation within the Vishnu Schist revealed in a S-bend to the foliation (giant S-bend is found in the fabric of the rock just above river level.

Morning classroom on the river

The moon setting behind the Great Thumb Mesa in Conquistador Aisle

The warm waterfall in Stone Creek

The patio, a quiet paradise in Deer Creek

A sill of basalt that has intruded into beds of the Bright Angel Shale (lower part of the photograph)

Vulcans Anvil is a volcanic plug or neck that remains as a remnant upstream from Lava Falls on the river

A lava cascade comes into the Grand Canyon from the north side of the river near Whitmore Wash. Imaging what it must have looked like to see red hot lava pouring into the Ice Age river.

Opportunities to see wildlife abound on this trip we saw many Bighorn sheep browsing along the rivers edge

On at least five separate occasions, huge lava dams burst catastrophically into the lower river, leaving behind some pretty fantastic deposits. Here, a former channel of the Colorado River is filled with such debris, which can contain boulders as big as 100 feet in diameter and up to 600 feet above the modern channel. These were huge outburtst floods.

The Black Ledge lava flow as exposed near Mile 208 on the Colorado River. This flow traveled 86 miles down the river and only remnants of it remain after it was erupted 600,000 to 650,000 years ago.

Group shot at Travertine Grotto in the Lower Gorge

A black dike within the igneous rocks of the Lower Gorge

This is the remains of Bridge Canyon City where dam builders were surveying the proposed Bridge Canyon Dam.

A backward glance at the far end of the Grand Canyon where it abruptly ends at the Grand Wash Cliffs.