"To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower,
To hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour..."

Wm. Blake



GRAND CANYON of the COLORADO
February, 2000



The rock you stand on at the rim is 250 million years old. The Palesozoic era preceded the Mesazoic, when the dinasaurs came to be, and you are looking down through half the earth's history, to 1.8 billion year old rock. .




The mist poured in and swirled around.

The Grand Canyon in mist.
The canyon itself extends 200 river miles, from Marble Canyon to Lake Mead. The canyon itself is the youngest thing here. It started forming only about 10 million years back. Only. Ten Million. But the rock it cut throuh was a bit older. The top layer, the Kaibab limestone, was laid down at the bottom of the Permian Sea 250 or so million years back.

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado in winter mode. The clouds of February allow the sun to spotlight Isis Temple.



The snows of the 7,000 ft plus elevation in the alpine forest on the rim, give way to the semi desert of the mid canyon.

Snow on the rim in winter belies the condition down below. There is a 20 degree difference between top and bottom. After all, it is a mile down from rim to river. In elevation that is. It is still at least a 7 mile hike!! This halcion scene is about 2 miles down the trail, which starts at Hermit's Rest. The Dripping Springs trail branches off, and traverses this pretty semi-desert area. Then the Boucher trail takes off out to the very edge of the Hermit Canyon. Boucher was the hermit. Began mining operations, but later turned to tourism.



The bottom of the the canyon reveals the oldest rocks. An incomprehensible 1.8 billion year old metamorphic rock, called the Vishnu Shist, is the result of ancient mountain ranges. Flaming red granite intrudes this black shiny shist. Above, a huge unconformity, and the Cambrian sandstone called Tappeats. The varves, or layers, stacking about a hundred feet up represent different seasons of deposition during a period when a shallow sea subject to annual turbidity, about 550 million years back, existed here.

Above the Tappeats sandstone is another Cambrian layer, the Bright Angel Shale, which, as common with soft shale, has eroded rapidly and creates the gently sloping plateau, called the Tonto Plateau, quite wide in some places.




These guys, one from England, the other from California, in top shape, did a recreational run through these difficult trails like they were nothing!! Jason from San Jose, and Stewart from Norfolk, England, stopped in the same sites I camped. Enjoyed talking with them briefly.

They left camp, after hiking the 6 miles or so across the Tonto from Boucher Creek, a trek thru the Hermit Creek to the Colorado, then back up the steep, rough, Hermit Trail, about 8 more miles straight up. Heard from Jason, that they got to trail head after dark. There are some rough spots and even in daylight the trail gets hard to find. Rock slides make hard going at many points.

I did it the next morning. Left Hermit Camp about 5, made it out about noon. Snow and ice the last 500 feet, made it slow for me. Over all, the best of some 8 back-packs I have taken in the Canyon.




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