Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

Coming down the Green River, we enter Canyonlands National Park where the Grand-San Juan county line meets the Emery-Wayne county line (fig. 1), about 2¼ miles north of Taylor and Upheaval Canyons. The National Park Service had three successful test wells put down in Taylor Canyon, and water under artesian pressure was found in the White Rim Sandstone at depths of 373 to 482 feet. When funds become available, they hope to complete one or more of these wells and pump the water up to Island in the Sky, where two dry holes were drilled earlier.

About 5½ miles below Upheaval Canyon is an interesting ruin on a hill in the middle of a large nearly closed loop of the river enclosing Fort Bottom. This was noted by Dellenbaugh (1902) during Powell’s 1871 trip and was described in more detail by Mutschler (1969, p. 33-34):

The ruin consists of two, two-story, interconnected, crudely circular
towers, and a third separate, completely collapsed tower, built on the
summit of the bluff with a commanding view downriver and of Fort
Bottom. Other collapsed structures are present on the summit, and a
slab-lined cist is present beneath the Moss Back ledge west of the
towers. The ruin was built of dry laid masonry and most of the mud
plaster on the inside has been washed away, leaving the structure in
danger of imminent collapse. Please do not climb the walls!

Fort Bottom also contains a cabin believed to have been used by Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch (Baker, 1971, p. 198).

At about the mouth of Millard Canyon, we leave Labyrinth Canyon and enter Stillwater Canyon, aptly named by members of the 1869 Powell voyage (Dellenbaugh, 1902, p. 276). The beginning of Stillwater Canyon is marked by vertical walls of the White Rim Sandstone. From here Powell’s men observed a butte to the southwest thought to resemble a fallen cross and named it “Butte of the Cross.” Farther downstream they realized they had been looking at two buttes, a small one in front of a larger one, so the feature was renamed “Buttes of the Cross.” An aerial view of Buttes of the Cross is shown in figure 64.

About 2 miles below the mouth of Millard Canyon, at Anderson Bottom, we reach one of the most interesting features on the river—the most recent rincon of a major river in the park, if not in the entire canyon country. Although some rincons are more recent, they are along minor tributaries such as Indian Creek (fig. 73). The cutoff at Anderson Bottom probably took place during the Pleistocene Epoch, whereas most of the others along the main rivers probably occurred during the Tertiary Period (fig. 80). An aerial view of the Anderson Bottom rincon is shown in figure 65, and a sketch of the drainage change is shown in figure 66. This feature was noted and correctly interpreted by Powell and his men, who applied the name Bonita Bend to the sharp new course the river took after the cutoff.

Continuing through Stillwater Canyon, we pass Turks Head (figs. 23, 24) and head for the confluence of the Green River with the Colorado River. Figure 67 shows the canyon just west of the confluence. The lowest and largest cliff above the river is the upper member of the Hermosa Formation, overlain by the slopes and thin ledges of the Rico Formation. The massive sandstone at the top of the canyon wall is the Cedar Mesa. Junction Butte and Grand View Point are on the right skyline.

We have already viewed the confluence and Cataract Canyon from the land and from the air (figs. 59-61); soon we will see them from the Colorado River.

Colorado River

As indicated earlier, all but one of the early river voyages began on the Green River. The Grand (Colorado) River above the confluence was neglected for some 18 years after Powell’s second voyage, until, in 1889, Frank M. Brown organized a company for construction of the proposed Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific Railway. This railroad was to carry coal from mines in Colorado over a “water-level” line through the canyons of the Colorado River to the Gulf of California some 1,200 miles away; from there the coal would presumably be shipped to ports as far north as San Francisco (Dellenbaugh, 1902, p. 343-369). On March 26, 1889, Brown, president, F. C. Kendrick, chief engineer, and T. P. Rigney, assistant engineer, drove the first stake for a survey of the new line at Grand Junction, Colo., then Brown left for the East to obtain financing, and the other two plus some hired hands took off down the Grand River. After reaching the confluence they towed the boat up the Green River, thus becoming the first to make this trip upstream. They nearly ran out of food, but thanks to the hospitality of some cattlemen, they replenished their stock and after about 9 days reached the railroad at Green River, Utah. Brown, who had returned from the East, his newly appointed chief engineer, Robert Brewster Stanton, and 14 others in six ill-designed boats of cedar, rather than oak, left Green River on May 25, 1889. Against the advice of Major Powell and A. H. Thompson, Powell’s topographer on the 1871 trip, they carried no life preservers. After many mishaps, Brown and two others were drowned near the head of Marble Canyon, and the ill-fated expedition was temporarily halted. However, the indefatigable Stanton contracted for new boats built of oak and, with a reorganized party of 12, left the mouth of the Fremont (Dirty Devil) River on November 25. After many further mishaps, the party finally reached the Gulf of California on April 26, 1890. Needless to say the proposed railway was not built.

Although the Colorado River enters Canyonlands National Park about 33 river miles below Moab, most boaters or floaters begin their voyage either at Moab or near Potash, and most travelers of the White Rim Trail begin at Moab, so we will start our trip at Moab. No logs or river runners’ guides are available as yet for the reach from Moab to Potash, but below Potash some details of the geology have been described by Baars in Baars and Molenaar (1971, p. 59-87).

As noted at the beginning of this chapter, above the confluence both the Green and Colorado Rivers are very crooked, have very low grades, and are free from rapids. As with the Green, the soft rocks along the Colorado have a generally low northward dip that partly explains the river’s gentle grade and its southward flow through increasingly lower and older strata. Unlike the Green, however, the gentle dips of the strata in the canyons of the Colorado are interrupted by several gentle anticlinal (fig. 14) and synclinal (fig. 26) folds and by at least one fault. The most important of these geologic structures and other features will be noted as we journey down the river.

The first 14 miles from Moab Valley to Potash can be made either by river or by paved Utah Highway 279. This highway leaves U.S. Highway 163 near the uranium ore-reduction plant several miles northwest of Moab, leaves Moab Valley through The Portal (fig. 68), and follows the west bank of the river. A paved secondary road from Moab follows the east bank of the river through The Portal and through Kings Bottom, where it crosses the Kings Bottom syncline, to the mouth of Kane Springs Canyon, then becomes a gravel road that ascends this canyon southward to and beyond Hurrah Pass (fig. 30). High above this road north of Kings Bottom are petroglyphs and a few cliff dwellings in the vertical cliffs of Wingate Sandstone. A ranch “house” at Kings Bottom has been excavated entirely into the Wingate cliff. Convenient turnouts have been provided at several places along Highway 279 for viewing petroglyphs or other points of interest. Small viewing tubes welded to vertical steel posts having signs help visitors locate and see the features described.

The Kings Bottom syncline (fig. 30) southwest of Moab Valley brings the Navajo Sandstone down to and slightly below water level, whereas at The Portal (fig. 68) the Navajo caps the southwest wall of Moab Valley. Several anticlines at or near the river from Potash to and beyond the confluence (fig. 1) bring up strata as old as the Rico or the unnamed upper member of the Hermosa. Between these extremes, much of the river’s course lies in strata of the Cutler Formation.

About 7 miles below The Portal, Highway 279 is joined on the right by a branch line of the Denver and Rio Grand Western Railroad completed in 1962 to haul potash 36 miles from the mine at Potash north to the main line at Crescent Junction. The railroad emerges from a tunnel at the head of Bootlegger Canyon. Two natural arches near the mouth of the tunnel—Pinto and Little Rainbow Bridge—can be reached by trail. About 3 miles farther down the Colorado is a temporary dock from which jet boats and the _Canyon King_, a 93-foot 150-passenger stern-wheeler, take off for points downriver during the spring and early summer, when water depth permits. The _Canyon King_ (fig. 69), a small replica of a Mississippi River stern-wheeler, carries passengers about 30 miles downriver to the foot of Dead Horse Point and returns (Lansford, 1972).

About 12 miles below The Portal we reach Potash—the potash “mine” (fig. 70) of Texas Gulf, Inc. (See fig. 31 and its associated text for description of operation.) Travelers down the jeep trail below Potash pass the evaporation ponds (fig. 71) used to separate the potash from common salt.

Across the river east from Potash is Jackson Hole, a large rincon. Since abandonment, which shortened the river by about 3½ miles, the river has cut its channel nearly 200 feet deeper. It is comparable in size to the large rincon along Green River below Bowknot Bend (p. 90) but probably is somewhat younger. Both rincons may be as old as late Tertiary (fig. 80). Just below Potash we cross the axis of the huge Cane Creek anticline (fig. 31) and also leave Grand County to enter San Juan County. A mile east of this point, high on the canyon wall, is the School Section 13 uranium mine, which has yielded considerable ore and is expected to resume production sometime during 1973. It can be seen from the river or the trail, and some of the tailings are visible on the left flank of the anticline in figure 13.

Voyagers who cross the axis of the Cane Creek anticline may observe on the right-hand (west) bank a protruding oil-well casing, some drill bits, and several shacks—all that remain of the Frank Shafer No. 1 oil test started during the winter of 1924-25 and completed by the Midwest Exploration Co. (Baker, 1933, p. 81). As described by Maxine Newell (U.S. Natl. Park Service, written commun., 1970),

The well blew in in December 1925, caught fire, and spewed burning oil
300 feet into the air. * * * The local Times-Independent newspaper
called it “Mother Nature’s Christmas Gift to Grand County.” The gusher
burned down the rig, a barge of equipment, and it took three months to
get it under control. Then it didn’t produce.

Various 1925 and 1926 issues of the Moab Times-Independent reported that despite many efforts to plug the well, it continued to flow from 1,000 to several thousand barrels of oil per day for 6 months or more, all of which floated down the river. The last blowout occurred in 1937, after which the well was plugged with an additional 180 tons of cement.

Mrs. Newell added,

The stories told of the early-day exploration are endless and
delightful. Equipment and supplies were barged down the Colorado River
by the old Moab Garage Company; in winter months materials were
carried by team and sled over the river ice. They would take a couple
of rig timbers and pile a lot of lumber on them (they could take
10,000 feet), then we’d give them a start with a crowbar and the mules
would trot all the way downhill to the well. When they’d get there
they had a little trouble stopping sometimes; they would turn into the
bank, unload, then put the double trees on one mule, ride the other,
and head back for a new load of rig lumber.

The evaporation ponds shown in figures 31 and 71 are in Shafer Basin, a synclinal basin separating the Cane Creek anticline and Shafer dome. We cross the axis of Shafer Basin about 2 miles below the county line.

Further downstream is Shafer dome, a closed anticlinal bulge just beyond the W-shaped bend in the river as shown in figure 29. Parts of the dome also show up in the lower right of figure 13 and the lower left of figure 15. From almost anywhere in the Goose Neck, the sharp bend of the river shown in figure 15, we get an excellent view of Dead Horse Point some 2,000 feet above.

Robert R. Norman (oral commun. Feb. 27, 1973) described to me a small petrified forest—which he said resembles a log jam—in the eastern part of the Shafer dome, at mileage 39 (Baars and Molenaar, 1971, p. 65), just north of this point about half way between the river and the jeep trail below Dead Horse Point. He estimated that there probably are 20 to 30 logs, some of which are as large as 18 inches in diameter and more than 20 feet long, and also described a stump about 3 feet in diameter. They occur in red beds at about the middle of the Rico Formation, hence could be either Pennsylvanian or Permian in age (figs. 9, 80). The original wood has been replaced by silica (SiO₂) and stained a dark reddish brown, as shown in figure 72.

Mr. Norman and his brother also discovered many teeth of a primitive sharklike fish in the Rico Formation at the same general locality as the petrified wood and also in the Rico on the Cane Creek anticline. I submitted two of the teeth to Dr. David H. Dunkle, curator of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, who reported them to be “one tooth of the cochliodont ‘shark’ _Deltodus_, and one tooth of the petalodont ‘shark’ _Petalodus_” (written commun., May 22, 1973).

About 4 miles below the Goose Neck, we enter Canyonlands National Park and remain in the park almost to the north end of Lake Powell.

About 6½ miles into the park, at the north end of a bend much like the Goose Neck, is the mouth of Lathrop Canyon, where many boaters stop for lunch and where a side road connects with the White Rim Trail (fig. 1).

Six and one half miles below Lathrop Canyon is the mouth of Rustler Canyon, which is joined near its mouth by Indian Creek—the creek followed by the highway leading to The Needles from U.S. 163. Within an airline distance of only 3 miles, the lower reach of Indian Creek, an intermittent stream, flows past four small rincons, three of which (fig. 73) are within an airline distance of only 0.8 mile. The stream has cut its new channel into the red sandstones and shales of the Cutler Formation only 15 to 20 feet deeper than the abandoned ones in the two rincons at the left in figure 73 and only about 25 feet deeper than the one on the right. These figures suggest, at least to me, that these cutoffs probably occurred sometime during the Holocene Epoch, or age of man—that is, probably within the last 10,000 years (fig. 80). A detailed study of these rincons might change this estimate, particularly if, say, buried driftwood or other carbonaceous material could be found for an age determination by the radiocarbon method.

About 5 miles below the mouth of Rustler Canyon and Indian Creek, and also about 5 miles above the confluence, is The Loop—an even sharper and more symmetrical figure eight than Bowknot Bend of the Green River (fig. 62). An aerial view of The Loop (fig. 74) shows that the channels on the south loop are only about 500 feet apart and that those on the north loop are only about 1,700 feet apart. At the narrowest places, both saddles are considerably eroded—the southern one is only about 150 feet above the river, but the northern one is still about 350 feet above. Erosion of both saddles has been hastened by the facts that the axis of the Meander anticline (see p. 108) passes through each saddle and that an interesting reverse fault (fig. 75) passes through the lower and thinner southern saddle. The differences between reverse and normal faults are shown by comparing figures 56 and 76. It seems inevitable that some day the small saddle will be cut through by the Colorado River, and a new rincon will result. Eventually, the other loop also probably will be abandoned. As one of my colleagues remarked, how wonderful it would seem, to be present at the proper moment to witness such an event, particularly if one had a time-lapse movie camera to record it for posterity!

About a mile and a half below the south saddle of The Loop we meet the mouth of Salt Creek, which drains a large part of the Needles district. Figure 77 was taken in Salt Creek canyon about 2 airline miles above the mouth looking southeast toward Six-Shooter Peaks and Shay Mountain, northernmost of the Abajo Mountains, on the horizon.

A mile and a half above the confluence is The Slide, a jumbled mass of angular blocks of rock that fell from the northwest canyon wall and originally probably extended all the way to the southeast bank of the river. As shown in figure 78, it still extends nearly across the river, leaving only a narrow deep chute along the southeast bank. Just after the photograph was taken, we hit rough fast water in the chute, with waves about 2 feet high. At higher stages of the river, progressively more of The Slide is covered by water, and there is less tendency for waves to form. The date of this landslide is not known, but it is shown on a map by Herron (1917, pl. 22A) made prior to 1917 and may well have occurred during prehistoric times.

Soon we reach the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers (figs. 59, 60). This important junction of two mighty rivers was noted by all previous voyagers, but their impressions of it differed considerably. Powell (1875, p. 56) remarked:

These streams unite in solemn depths, more than one thousand two
hundred feet below the general surface of the country. The walls of
the lower end of Stillwater Cañon are very beautifully curved [see
fig. 67], as the river sweeps in its meandering course. The lower end
of the cañon through which the Grand comes down, is also regular, but
much more direct, and we look up this stream, and out into the country
beyond, and obtain glimpses of snow clad peaks, the summits of a group
of mountains known as the Sierra La Sal [La Sal Mountains]. Down the
Colorado, the cañon walls are much broken.

Dellenbaugh (1902, p. 277) gave a fuller description but concluded: “In every way the Junction is a desolate place”—an appraisal with which I disagree. The most colorful account I have read is that of Captain Francis Marion Bishop, a member of Powell’s 1871 expedition, who recorded in his journal for September 15, 1871 (1947, p. 202):

Well, we are at last, after many days of toil and labor, here at the
confluence of the two great arteries of this great mountain desert. No
more shall our frail boats dash through thy turbid waters, Old Green,
and no more shall we press on to see the dark flood from the peaks and
parks of Colorado. Grand and Green here sink to thy rest, and from thy
grave the _Colorado de Grande_ shall flow on forever, and on thy bosom
henceforth will we battle with rock and wave. One can hardly tell
which is the largest of the two rivers. Neither seems to flow into the
other, but there seems to be a blending of both, and from their union
rolls the Colorado River.

Cataract Canyon heads at the confluence, but the rapids do not appear until we leave Spanish Bottom some 3½ miles below. Between The Loop and Spanish Bottom, the Colorado River follows closely the axis of an anticline. Along this reach the rock strata dip downward away from the river, as shown in figure 61. This fold was noted by Powell and some of his men, and Bishop (1947, p. 203) reported in his journal for September 16, 1871:

He [Steward] is at a loss how to account for the folded appearance of
the strata here. But doubtless will find some explanation. Says the
dip recedes from the river cañon, and thinks it is a fissure. Maj.
[Powell] thinks it is owing to an upheaval, and that the beds next to
the river have broken up from the mass, etc., etc.

Forty-four years later Harrison (1927) named this structure the Meander anticline and concluded that the weight of the rocks on each side of the river had squeezed underlying beds of salt in the Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation and caused them to move upward along the river, where the confining strata had been removed by erosion. Harrison’s theory was accepted by Baker (1933) and most later workers in the area. Thus we have what may be termed an erosional anticline, whose axis, or crest, follows the river. Erosional anticlines also occur elsewhere, as along the Eagle and Roaring Fork valleys of central Colorado. Mutschler and Hite (1969) suggested that this zone of weakness in Canyonlands overlies and follows a break in the hard Precambrian (fig. 80) rocks that underlie the area at great depth. At any rate, Powell was on the right track even though he was totally unaware of the underlying salt or the deep-seated fault.

Smooth water continues from the confluence to Spanish Bottom, where the Old Spanish Trail comes down to the river from the west and continues up Lower Red Lake Canyon to the east. As mentioned earlier, this is about the south end of the Meander anticline, and an intruded chunk of the Paradox Member, mostly gypsum, occupies part of the mouth of Lower Red Lake Canyon, as shown in figure 79.

The remaining 10 miles or so of Cataract Canyon within Canyonlands National Park contains many rapids and should be traversed only under the leadership of experienced river guides. If and when Lake Powell reaches its maximum level, it will extend to within about a mile of the park, but at present (1973) it heads near the mouth of Gypsum Canyon, about 5 miles below the park.

The Age of the Earth

The Earth is very old—four and a half billion years or more according to recent estimates. Most of the evidence for an ancient Earth is contained in the rocks that form the Earth’s crust. The rock layers themselves—like pages in a long and complicated History—record the surface-shaping events of the past, and buried within them are traces of life—the plants and animals that evolved from organic structures that existed perhaps three billion years ago.

Also contained in rocks once molten are radioactive elements whose isotopes provide earth scientists with an atomic clock. Within these rocks, “parent” isotopes decay at a predictable rate to form “daughter” isotopes. By determining the relative amounts of parent and daughter isotopes, the age of these rocks can be calculated.

Thus the results of studies of rock layers (stratigraphy), and of the progressive development of life (paleontology), coupled with the ages of certain rocks as measured by atomic clocks (geochronology), attest to a very old Earth!

Summary of Geologic History

Having finished our geologic ramble through Canyonlands National Park, let us see how this pile of eroded rocks fit into the bigger scheme of things—the geologic age and events of the earth as a whole, as depicted in figure 80. As shown in figure 9, the rock strata still preserved in the park range in age from Pennsylvanian to Jurassic, or from about 300 to 175 million years ago, a span of about 125 million years. This seems an incredibly long time, until you note that the earth is some 4.5 billion years old and that our rock pile is but one twenty-fifth, or 4 percent, of the age of the earth as a whole. Thus, in figure 80 the rocks exposed in the park occupy only about the left-hand third of the top whorl of the spiral.

But this is not the whole story. As indicated earlier, about 10,000 feet of younger Mesozoic and Tertiary rocks that once covered the area have been carried away by erosion, and if we include these, the span is increased to about 250 million years, or nearly a full whorl of the spiral.

Deep tests for oil and gas tell us that much older rocks underlie the area, and we have seen that some of these rocks played a part in shaping the park we see today—note the breaks in the deep-seated Precambrian rocks and the salt in the Paradox Member. In addition to the Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks, there are about 2,000 feet of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks older than the Pennsylvanian Paradox Member. Most of these sedimentary rocks were laid down in ancient seas during Cambrian, Ordovician, Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian times (fig. 80). There are some gaps in the rock record caused by temporary emergence of the land above sea level and erosion of the land surface before the land again subsided below sea level so that deposition could resume. Silurian rocks are absent altogether, presumably because here the Silurian Period was dominated by erosion rather than deposition.

While Pennsylvanian and Permian sediments were being deposited in and southwest of the park, a large area to the northeast—called by geologists the Uncompahgre highland, because it occupied the same general area as the present Uncompahgre Plateau—rose slowly above sea level. Whatever Paleozoic rocks there were on this rising land, plus part of the underlying Precambrian rocks, were eroded and carried by streams into deep basins to the northeast and southwest. Thus, while mostly marine or nearshore deposits were being laid down in and near the park, thousands of feet of red beds were being laid down by streams in an area between the park and the Uncompahgre Plateau. During part of Middle Pennsylvanian time a large area including the park and known as the Paradox Basin was alternately connected to or cut off from the sea, so the water evaporated during cutoff periods and was replenished during periods when connection with the sea resumed. In this huge evaporation basin were deposited the layers of salt and gypsum plus some potash salts and shale that now make up the Paradox Member.

The old Uncompahgre highland continued to shed debris into the bordering basins until Triassic time, when it began to acquire a veneer of red sandstone and siltstone of the Chinle Formation (Lohman, 1965). The area remained above sea level during the Triassic Period and most if not all the Jurassic Period, although the Jurassic Carmel Formation was laid down in a sea that lay just to the west.

Late in the Cretaceous Period a large part of central and southeastern United States, including the eastern half of Utah, sank beneath the sea, as shown in figure 81, and received thousands of feet of mud, silt, and some sand that later compacted into the Mancos Shale. This formation and all the younger and some older strata have long since been eroded from the park area but are present in adjacent areas, such as the lower slopes of the Book Cliffs north of Green River, Crescent Junction, and Cisco (fig. 7).

The land rose above the sea at about the close of the Cretaceous and has remained above ever since, although inland basins and lakes received sediment during parts of the Tertiary Period. Compressive forces in the earth’s crust produced some gentle folding of the strata at the close of the Cretaceous, but more pronounced folding and some faulting occurred during the Eocene Epoch, when most of the Rocky Mountains took form. During the Miocene Epoch molten igneous rock welled up into the strata to form the cores of the nearby La Sal, Abajo, and Henry Mountains (fig. 7). Additional uplift and some folding occurred in the Pliocene and Pleistocene Epochs.

Much of the course of the Colorado River was established in the Miocene Epoch, with some additional adjustments in the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene Epochs (Hunt, 1969, p. 67). Erosion during much of the Tertiary Period and all of the Quaternary Period, combined with some sagging and breaking of the crust brought on by solution and lateral squeezing of salt beds beneath The Needles, The Grabens, and the Meander anticline, produced the landscape as we now see it.

The Precambrian rocks beneath the area are about 1.5 billion years old, so an enormous span of time is represented by the rocks and events in and beneath Canyonlands National Park.

If we consider the geologic formations that make up the Colorado Plateau—including national parks (N.P.), national monuments (N.M.) (excluding small historical or archeological ones), Monument Valley, San Rafael Swell, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area—certain formations or groups of formations play starring roles in some parks or monuments, some play supporting roles, and in a few places the entire cast of rocks gets about equal billing. Let us compare them and see how and where they fit into the geologic time spiral (fig. 80).

Dinosaur N. M., with exposed rocks ranging in age from Precambrian to Cretaceous, represents the greatest time span (nearly 2 billion years) but has one unit—the Jurassic Morrison Formation—in the starring role, for this unit contains the many dinosaur fossils that give the monument its name and fame; several older units have supporting roles. Grand Canyon N. P. and N. M. are next, with rocks from Precambrian through Permian (excluding the Quaternary lava flows in the N. M.), but here there is truly a team effort, for the entire cast gets about equal billing. Canyonlands N. P. stands third in size of cast, with rocks ranging from Pennsylvanian to Jurassic, but we would have to give top billing to the Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone Member of the Cutler Formation, from which The Needles, The Grabens, and most of the arches were sculptured; the Triassic Wingate Sandstone and Kayenta Formation get second billing for their roles in forming and preserving Island in the Sky and other high mesas.

Now let us consider those with only one or few players in the cast, beginning at the bottom of the time spiral. Black Canyon of the Gunnison N. M., cut entirely in rocks of early Precambrian age (except for only a veneer of much younger rocks), obviously has but one star in its cast. Colorado N. M. contains rocks ranging from Precambrian to Cretaceous—equal to Dinosaur in this respect—but it is unique in that all the rocks of the long Paleozoic Era and some others are missing from the cast; of those that remain, the Triassic Wingate and Kayenta are the stars, with strong support from the Jurassic Entrada Sandstone.

All the bridges in Natural Bridges N. M. were carved from the Permian Cedar Mesa Sandstone, also the star in Canyonlands N. P. In Canyon de Chelly (pronounced “dee shay”) N. M. and Monument Valley (neither N. P. nor N. M., as it is owned and administered by the Navajo Tribe), the de Chelly Sandstone Member of the Cutler Formation—a Permian member younger than the Cedar Mesa—plays the starring role.

Wupatki N. M., near Flagstaff, Ariz., stars the Triassic Moenkopi Formation. Petrified Forest N. P. (which now includes part of the Painted Desert) also has but one star—the Triassic Chinle Formation, with its many petrified logs and stumps of ancient trees. The Triassic-Jurassic Glen Canyon Group (fig. 9), which includes the Triassic Wingate Sandstone and Kayenta Formation and the Triassic-Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, receives top billing in recently enlarged Capitol Reef N. P., but the Triassic Moenkopi and Chinle Formations enjoy supporting roles.

The Triassic-Jurassic Navajo Sandstone, erosional remnants of which are found on the high mesas of Canyonlands N. P., is the undisputed star of Zion N. P., Rainbow Bridge N. M., and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, despite the fact that the latter is the type locality of the entire Glen Canyon Group (fig. 9). The Navajo also forms the impressive reef at the eastern edge of the beautiful San Rafael Swell (a dome, or closed anticline, fig. 7), now crossed by Highway I-70 between Green River and Fremont Junction, Utah.

As we journey upward in the time spiral (fig. 80), we come to the Jurassic Entrada Sandstone, which stars in Arches N. P., with help from the underlying Navajo Sandstone and a supporting cast of both older and younger rocks. The Entrada also forms the grotesque erosional forms called “hoodoos and goblins” in Goblin Valley State Park, north of Hanksville, Utah.

Moving ever upward in the spiral, we come to the Cretaceous—the age of the starring Mesaverde Group, whose caves in Mesa Verde N. P. now house beautifully preserved ruins once occupied by the Anasazi, the same ancient people who once dwelt in Canyonlands N. P.

This brings us up to the Tertiary Period, during the early part of which the pink limestones and shales of the Paleocene and Eocene Wasatch Formation were laid down in inland basins. Beautifully sculptured cliffs, pinnacles, and caves of the Wasatch star in Bryce Canyon N. P. and nearby Cedar Breaks N. M. This concludes our climb up the time spiral, except for Quaternary volcanoes and some older volcanic features at Sunset Crater N. M., near Flagstaff, Ariz.

Thus, one way or another, many geologic units that formed during the last couple of billion years have performed on the stage of the Colorado Plateau and, hamlike, still lurk in the wings eagerly awaiting your applause to recall them to the footlights. Don’t let them down—visit and enjoy the national parks and monuments of the Plateau, for they probably are the greatest collection of scenic wonderlands in the world.

Additional Reading

Many reports covering various aspects of the area have been cited in the text by author and year, and these plus a few additional ones are listed below under “Selected References.” A few of general or special interest should be mentioned, however.

Between 1926 and 1931 virtually the entire area now included in the park was mapped geologically in three classic reports—two by Baker (1933, 1946) and one by McKnight (1940). These men and their field assistants mapped the area by use of the plane table and telescopic alidade without benefit of modern topographic maps or aerial photographs, except for topographic maps of narrow stretches along the Green and Colorado Rivers made under the direction of Herron (1917). Only small sections could be reached by automobile, so nearly all the area was traversed using horses or by hiking.

During the uranium boom of the early and middle 1950’s, the U.S. Geological Survey remapped the topography of most of the area at a scale of 1:24,000 and also remapped the geology of much of the area at this same scale. The southern part of the Needles district was mapped by Lewis and Campbell (1965). The geologic mapping west of the Green and Colorado Rivers was done by F. A. McKeown, P. P. Orkild, C. C. Hawley, and others; that east of the Colorado River and a little between the two rivers was done by E. N. Hinrichs and others. Only four of the geologic maps have been published (Hinrichs and others, 1967, 1968, 1971a, b), but all this work and the older reports were used by Williams (1964) in compiling the 1:250,000-scale geologic map of the Moab quadrangle, by Williams and Hackman (1971) in compiling a similar map of the Salina quadrangle, and by Haynes, Vogel, and Wyant (1972) in compiling a similar map of the Cortez quadrangle. These three maps show the geology of the entire park.

The 1970 issue of the Naturalist in which the cited papers by Jennings, Newell, and Stokes appear also contains other papers on Canyonlands National Park, including one on the plants.

Several early reports on the Green and Colorado Rivers and their potential utilization contain a wealth of information and many fine photographs—two reports on the Colorado River by La Rue (1916, 1925), one on the Green River by Wooley (1930), and one on the upper Colorado River (above the confluence) by Follansbee (1929).

For those who wish to learn more about the science of geology, I suggest the textbook by Gilluly, Waters, and Woodford (1968).

Acknowledgments

My deep appreciation goes to Bates Wilson, former superintendent of Canyonlands National Park, and to Joe Carithers, former assistant superintendent, for their splendid cooperation in supplying data and information and for making available four-wheel-drive vehicles. I also wish to thank Chuck Budge, former chief ranger; Dave May, assistant chief ranger; Joe Miller, former maintenance engineer; Bob Kerr, new superintendent; Maxine Newell, park historian and member of the staff at Arches National Park; Jerry Banta, park ranger at Arches; and Dave Minor, district ranger for the Needles district, for their many favors.

I am grateful to several colleagues and friends for the loan of photographs, for geologic help and data, and for reviewing this report. I am also deeply grateful to my wife Ruth for accompanying me on all the field work and for her help and encouragement.

Selected references

Baars, D. L., and Molenaar, C. M., 1971, Geology of Canyonlands and
Cataract Canyon: [Durango, Colo.] Four Corners Geol. Soc., 6th
Field Conf., Cataract Canyon River exped., 99 p.
Baker, A. A., 1933, Geology and oil possibilities of the Moab
district, Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey
Bull. 841, 95 p.
____ 1946, Geology of the Green River Desert-Cataract Canyon region,
Emery, Wayne, and Garfield Counties, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey
Bull. 951, 122 p.
Baker, Pearl, 1971, The Wild Bunch at Robbers Roost: New York,
Toronto, London, Abelard-Schuman, 224 p.
Bishop, Captain Francis Marion, 1947, Bishop’s Journal edited by
Charles Kelley, _in_ Biographical sketches and original
documents of the second Powell expedition of 1871-72: Utah
State Hist. Soc., Utah Hist. Quart., v. 15, p. 159-238.
Crampton, C. G., 1964, Standing up country, the canyon lands of Utah
and Arizona: New York, Alfred A. Knopf (Utah Univ. Press, in
association with Amon Carter Mus. Western Art), 191 p.
Dellenbaugh, F. S., 1902, The romance of the Colorado River: New York,
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 399 p. [reprinted 1962 by Rio Grande
Press, Chicago, III.]
____ 1962, A canyon voyage: The narrative of the second Powell
Expedition down the Green-Colorado River from Wyoming, and the
explorations on land, in the years 1871 and 1872: New Haven
and London, Yale Univ. Press, Foreword by William H.
Goetzmann, 277 p.
Everhart, W. C., 1972, The National Park Service, Praeger Library of
U.S. Government Departments and Agencies No. 13: New York,
London, Praeger Publishers, Inc., 276 p.
Findley, Rowe, 1971. Canyonlands—realm of rock and the far horizon:
Nat Geog. Mag., July, p. 71-91.
Follansbee, Robert, 1929, Upper Colorado River and its utilization:
U.S. Geol. Survey Water-Supply Paper 617, 394 p.
Gilluly, James, Waters, A. C., and Woodford, A. O., 1968, Principles
of geology [3d ed.]: San Francisco and London, W. H. Freeman
and Co., 685 p.
Hansen, W. R., 1969, The geologic story of the Uinta Mountains [with
graphics by John R. Stacy]: U.S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1291,
144p.
Harrison, T. S., 1927, Colorado-Utah salt domes: Am. Assoc. Petroleum
Geologists Bull., v. 11, no. 2, p. 111-133.
Haynes, D. D., Vogel, J. D., and Wyant, D. G., 1972, Geology,
structure, and uranium deposits of the Cortez quadrangle,
Colorado and Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc. Geol. Inv. Map
I-629.
Herron, W. H., 1917, Profile surveys in the Colorado River basin in
Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico: U.S. Geol. Survey
Water-Supply Paper 396, 6 p., 43 pl.
Hinrichs, E. N., and others, 1967, Geologic map of the northwest
quarter of the Hatch Point quadrangle, San Juan County, Utah:
U.S. Geol. Survey Misc. Geol. Inv. Map I-513.
____ 1968, Geologic map of the northeast quarter of the Hatch Point
quadrangle, San Juan County, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc.
Geol. Inv. Map 1-526.
____ 1971a, Geologic map of the southeast quarter of the Hatch Point
quadrangle, San Juan County, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc.
Geol. Inv. Map 1-669.
____ 1971b, Geologic map of the southwest quarter of the Hatch Point
quadrangle, San Juan County, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc.
Geol. Inv. Map 1-670.
Hite, R. J., 1968, Salt deposits of the Paradox Basin, southeast Utah
and southwest Colorado, _in_ Mattox, R. B., ed., Saline
deposits: Geol. Soc. America Spec. Paper 88, p. 319-330.
Hunt, Alice, 1956, Archeology of southeastern Utah, _in_ Geology and
economic deposits of east-central Utah: Intermountain Assoc.
Petroleum Geologists, 7th Ann. Field Conf., Salt Lake City,
Utah, 1956, p. 13-18.
Hunt, C. B., 1969, Geologic history of the Colorado River, _in_ The
Colorado River region, and John Wesley Powell: U.S. Geol.
Survey Prof. Paper 669, p. 59-130.
Jennings, J. D., 1970, Canyonlands—aborigines: Naturalist, v. 21,
Summer, Spec. Issue 2, p. 10-15.
Joesting, H. R., and Plouff, Donald, 1958, Geophysical studies of the
Upheaval Dome area, San Juan County, Utah: Intermountain
Assoc. Petroleum Geologists, 9th Ann. Field Conf., Salt Lake
City, Utah, 1958, p. 86-91.
Joesting, H. R., Case, J. E., and Plouff, Donald, 1966, Regional
geophysical investigations of the Moab-Needles area, Utah:
U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 516-C, 21 p.
Kolb, E. L., 1927, Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico [2d
ed.]: New York, Macmillan, 344 p.
Lansford, Henry, 1972, Boatman in the desert, a passenger-carrying
stern-wheeler in canyon country: Empire [magazine of the
Denver Post], Nov. 5, p. 18-19.
La Rue, E. C., 1916, Colorado River and its utilization: U.S. Geol.
Survey Water-Supply Paper 395, 231 p.
____ 1925, Water power and flood control of Colorado River below Green
River, Utah, with a forward by Hubert Work, Secretary of the
Interior, p. 1-100. [App. A, A report on water supply, by E.
C. La Rue and G. F. Holbrook, p. 101-123; app. B, A geologic
report on the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon of Colorado
River, by R. C. Moore, p. 125-171]: U.S. Geol. Survey
Water-Supply Paper 556, 176 p.
Lewis, R. Q., and Campbell, R. H., 1965, Geology and uranium deposits
of Elk Ridge and vicinity, San Juan County, Utah: U.S. Geol.
Survey Prof. Paper 474-B, 69 p.
Lohman, S. W., 1965, The geologic story of Colorado National Monument:
Colo. and Black Canyon Nat. History Assoc., 56 p.
McKnight, E. T., 1940, Geology of area between Green and Colorado
Rivers, Grand and San Juan Counties, Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey
Bull. 908, 147 p.
Mattox, R. B., 1968, Upheaval Dome, a possible salt dome in the
Paradox Basin, Utah, _in_ Mattox, R. B., ed., Saline deposits:
Geol. Soc. America Spec. Paper 88, p. 331-347.
Mutschler, F. E., 1969, Labyrinth, Stillwater, and Cataract Canyons:
River runners’ guide to the canyons of the Green and Colorado
Rivers, with emphasis on geologic features, volume II: Denver,
Colo., Powell Soc., Ltd., 79 p.
Mutschler, F. E., and Hite, R. J., 1969, Origin of the Meander
anticline, Cataract Canyon, Utah, and basement fault control
of Colorado River drainage [abs.]: Geol. Soc. America, Rocky
Mtn. Sec., 22nd Ann. Mtg., Salt Lake City, Utah, 1969, Abs.
with Programs, pt. 5, p. 57-58.
Newberry, J. S., 1861, Geological report, _in_ Ives, J. C., Report
upon the Colorado River of the West: U.S. 36th Cong. 1st
sess., S. Ex. Doc. and H. Ex. Doc. 90, pt. 3, 154 p.
Newell, Maxine, 1970, Canyonlands—modern history: Naturalist, v. 21,
Summer, Spec. Issue 2, p. 40-47.
Newman, W. L., 1970, Geologic time: U.S. Geol. Survey, 20 p.
Porter, Elliot, 1969, Down the Colorado, John Wesley Powell diary of
the first trip through the Grand Canyon 1869: New York, E. P.
Dutton & Co., 168 p.
Powell, J. W., 1875, Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and
its tributaries: Washington, D.C., 291 p.
Rabbitt, M. C., 1969, John Wesley Powell: pioneer statesman of federal
science, _in_ The Colorado River region and John Wesley
Powell: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 669, p. 1-21.
Sharrock, F. W., 1966, An archeological survey of Canyonlands National
Park: Utah Univ., Dept. Anthropology, Anthropol. Papers, Misc.
Paper 83, p. 51-84.
Stacy, J. R., 1962, Shortcut method for the preparation of
shaded-relief illustrations, _in_ Short papers in geology,
hydrology, and topography: U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper
450-D, p. D164-D165.
Stokes, W. L., 1970, Canyonlands—geology: Naturalist, v. 21, Summer,
Spec. Issue 2, p. 3-9.
Stone, J. F., 1932, Canyon country—The romance of a drop of water and
a grain of sand: New York, London, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 442 p.
U.S. Geol. Survey, [1969], John Wesley Powell—soldier, explorer,
scientist: 23 p.
Williams, P. L., 1964, Geology, structure, and uranium deposits of the
Moab quadrangle, Colorado and Utah: U.S. Geol. Survey Misc.
Geol. Inv. Map I-360.
Williams, P. L., and Hackman, R. J., 1971, Geology, structure, and
uranium deposits of the Salina quadrangle, Utah: U.S. Geol.
Survey Misc. Geol. Inv. Map I-591.
Wooley, R. R., 1930, The Green River and its utilization: U.S. Geol.
Survey Water-Supply Paper 618, 456 p.
Wright, J. C., Shaw, D. R., and Lohman, S. W., 1962, Definition of
members of the Jurassic Entrada Sandstone in east-central Utah
and west-central Colorado: Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists
Bull., v. 46, no. 11, p. 2057-2070.

Footnotes

[1]For the benefit of visitors from countries using the metric system,
the following conversion factors may be helpful: 1 square mile =
2.590 square kilometers, 1 acre = 0.4047 hectare, 1 inch = 2.54
centimeters, 1 foot = 0.305 meter, 1 mile = 1.609 kilometers, 1 U.S.
gallon = 0.00379 cubic meter.

[2]These plastic relief maps, made by the U.S. Army Map Service, can be
obtained from the T.N. Hubbard Scientific Co., Box 105, Northbrook,
Ill. 60062. Topographic maps at scales of 1:250,000 and 1:62,500 for
the entire area, topographic maps at a scale of 1:24,000 for much of
the area, and a special topographic map of “Canyonlands National
Park and Vicinity” at a scale of 1:62,500 are available from the
U.S. Geological Survey, Denver Distribution Section, Federal Center,
Denver, Colo. 80225, and from privately owned shops where maps are
sold. A revised edition of the latter, including relief shading,
will soon be available. An index map of Utah showing all available
topographic maps is free upon request to the above address.

Index

[Italic page numbers indicate major references]

A
Abajo Mountains 21, 113
Additions to the park 1
All American Man pictograph 9, 70
Anasazi people 9, 12, 68
Anderson Bottom 93
Angel Arch 24, 68
Anticline Overlook 31, 50
Arches 64, 70
Angel 24, 68
Canyon Viewpoint 36
Castle 68
Druid 24, 76
Gothic 68
in Cedar Mesa Sandstone 66, 115
in Navajo Sandstone 36
Little Rainbow Bridge 98
origin 65
Pinto 98
Wooden Shoe 66
Arches National Park 28, 116

B
Beef Basin 9, 75
Benchlands _58_
Bighorn Mesa 46
Bishop, Francis Marion, quotation 106
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Monument 115
Bonita Bend 57, 93
Bootlegger Canyon 98
Bowknot Bend 85, 88
Bryce Canyon National Park 116
Bureau of Land Management 46
Buttes, Junction 27
Merrimac and Monitor 28
of the Cross 92
Turks Head 40, 43, 93