Slickrock and Shadow

150 Mile Canyon:  twisting muav limestone in beautiful white 150 Mile Canyon can be hiked as far as possible in less than 5 minutes.  It's short but sweet.  A bit of stemming is required to get over one large boulder chockstone.  That gets you into the sweet twisted white narrows you see in this photo.  This section is short because another boulder prevents further travel (see next photo).  Another suspended chockstone hangs high overhead.  See the last photo for that one.  It's pretty cool. Boulder Chockstone in 150 Mile Canyon Suspended high Chockstone Boulder in 150 Mile Canyon Gordon's hike rating: Hike Difficulty:                   ★★★★ Easy to the first boulder, technical to bypass Trail Condition:                   ★★★★ Rocky wash but very short Trail Hazards:                ...

Stone Creek Waterfall:  Highlight of the Grand Canyon Stone Creek is the best hike from the Colorado River. Stone Creek is my favorite place in the Grand Canyon. Stone Creek is a dream come true. Stone Creek has two waterfalls which are a short distance from the beach.  They are beautiful but better things await the explorer.  Simply bypass these lower waterfalls and keep climbing up.  The third waterfall is a pleasant 2-tier drop.  On our hot climb up we each put our back on the wet wall and let the shower drench us.  On my return trip later that day I took photos with the waterfall in the shade.   Natural shower at Stone Creek Waterfall Lovely Stone Creek Waterfall Stone Creek waterfall and wildflowers.  Trying to capture these without excessive wind motion was difficult.   This third waterfall is quite beautiful but only midway up the canyon.  Easily bypassed, we continued upwards as we followed t...

Hatch River Rafting Expeditions:  2 S-rigs tied up at Blacktail Camp Life on the Colorado River is part of the wonderful experience of the Grand Canyon.  Although this deviates from traditional landscape photography, the river runners seem to be part of the landscape here and photography of such can be rewarding.  Although the rafts are not particularly aesthetic, the background more than makes up for that shortcoming! Above is a photo of our camp at Blacktail Canyon.  Below are some pictures of Blacktail Canyon and other images from the river at various locations. Blacktail Canyon:  sandstone layers upwards to the top.   Hatch River Expeditions at Granite Rapids!  Exceptional Adrenaline! Gordon Smith at Lava Falls Rapid (I'm quite happy here!)

Schist Narrows:  a geologic rarity! Schist is the stuff that doesn't belong in the southwest.  It's not sandstone.  It's weird metamorphic rock that seems marbled and smooth, dark and evil, even mysterious.  Making it more mysterious is the fact that it's so old and only exposed in some of the deepest parts of the Grand Canyon.  You've got to reach far back in time to see schist. Even more rare is a slot canyon with flowing water and schist walls.  Such a place exists only in Monument Creek, by Granite Rapids, deep in the Grand Canyon.  The black is schist.  Pink stuff is granite (hence "granite rapids"). Monument Creek is pretty but the rocky surface makes hiking a trudge.  Also, beware of schist.  Shoes do not stick to schist and you can just slide right down the slick surface.  It's not like any other rock I've been on.  Smooth schist is like ice in many ways. Some other pics from Monument Creek: Schist, Granit...

Garden Creek Waterfall Ed said the Bright Angel Trail was better than Phantom Ranch .  The T-shirt and lemonade at Phantom Ranch sounded good to me but T-shirts and lemonade are manmade.  They exist outside the Grand Canyon but it'd be cool to say I got a T-shirt at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  However a seasoned GC hiker, Ed, said that the Bright Angel Trail up to Indian Gardens was beautiful and a much more satisfying adventure.  Plus I'd get to hike out with my friends until I met my wife and brother-in-law.  This was part of the exchange at Phantom Ranch.  Some were just doing half the canyon so they left and were replaced by other travelers. I chose to hike out and also explore.  The trail up Bright Angel is pleasant, beautiful, smooth and maintained.  This was a sharp contrast to the Tabernacle Trail a two days earlier.  The friends departing felt like close family members by now and it was hard to see them go.  We had ...

Carbon-Lava Loop leads through some beautiful terrain in the Grand Canyon Carbon Canyon leads up to an elevated valley which then connects nicely with Lava Canyon and then returns to the Colorado River.  This loop hike lets you see 2 canyons for the price of one.  Carbon Canyon is muav sandstone and boulders.  The connecting valley reminded me of Death Valley and its' "painted hills."  Then Lava Canyon consists of a beautiful clear stream flowing down red, sharp lava rocks. This loop is sometimes called the Carbon Chuar Loop. This a pretty easy hike with only 2 boulder-rock pile ascents total.  The rest is pretty easy with near-level walking through either dry or wet washes.  The narrow section of upper Carbon Canyon is shown above is is lovely.  My personal favorite section is hiking down the cool clear waters of Lava Canyon stream.  This area is absolutely beautiful but difficult to photograph.  It's one of those places that is am...

The Tabernacle:  a panorama from the top of this monument! From left to right the formations are Cape Final, Jupiter Temple, Venus Temple, Apollo Temple, Unkar Delta (the Colorado River), South Rim, Solomon Temple.   J.P., our hiking trip leader, a seasoned veteran of the Colorado River, said he hadn't done the Tabernacle hike in many years.  He'd done it just once before, maybe 10 years earlier.  With our Hatch hiking-focused rafting trip, he wanted to attempt this pinnacle again.  We got the talk the night before:  2,200 feet elevation gain and then loss, no water, hard, no shade. "Some people might want to skip this one and stay at the boat," he said to the group, "especially if you found some of the other hikes difficult." J.P. pointing to the tiny peak in the middle of the photo:  that's the Tabernacle.  This is 1/3 the way up the trail already. We started at the river at a nice sandy beach.  We'd return to this beach ...

Redwall Cavern:  fun big magic sandbox! Redwall Cavern is the biggest sand box in the world.  I know.  I've been there.  The size is huge and comparable to a soccer field, a football field or a giant parking lot.  Except this is nature made and much prettier.  We pulled up on day 3 of our rafting trip for a lunch stop.  Everyone broke out their favorite toys:  frisbee, soccer ball, bocce, etc.  We played and played for an hour.  Then ate lunch.  It's great to explore here by walking from one end to the other but it takes a long time .  Then go from the back to the front.  It also takes a long time .  This is just so big and wonderful that walking in sand feels fun. Redwall Cavern dwarfs these otherwise huge rafts and people.  It's so big and beautiful.   Photographing Redwall Cavern is no simple feat.  It's too big.  With my 16mm lens I took several shots and then had to stitch them ...