A Land of Strange Standing Stones, and an Odd Connection to the Grand Canyon

There are a lot of strange landscapes on the Colorado Plateau and otherworldly scenes. Some are famous enough as to not surprise first time visitors, such as the spires and hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park. But others are hidden, strung along gravel roads far off the beaten track. Seeing them for the first time comes as a shock. These rocks just aren't "normal". 

The largest single park in the Colorado Plateau region is also one of the least familiar. Really, how many of you have heard of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument? It covers a huge swath of land north of Grand Canyon and Glen Canyon National Recreational Area, west of Capitol Reef National Park, and south of Bryce Canyon. It was controversial in its birth, as have been most of our National Monuments, but it is indeed worthy of protection. We are only just beginning to discover the treasures that lie within its borders.

Our journey on this day would take us from Glen Canyon Dam to Bryce Canyon National Park via Cottonwood Wash Road, a gravel track that runs for thirty miles along the East Kaibab Monocline, known here as the Cockscomb.

Part of the Cockscomb (East Kaibab Monocline) courtesy of Google Earth

A monocline is a step-like fold, flat on either side and flexing in the middle. Such folds often develop where fault moves beneath horizontal sedimentary layers. The Cockscomb is an extraordinary example of one of these features, with a vertical separation of nearly a mile (erosion has leveled off much of the uplifted rock, so the actual elevation change across the fold is much less). The fold is also very long. It extends for 150 miles and actually forms the eastern edge of the Kaibab Plateau where the Colorado River turns west to form the deepest part of the Grand Canyon. It formed during the Laramide Orogeny in Late Cretaceous-Early Paleogene time.

From Wikipedia

The rocks within the monocline have been twisted so much that the layers are vertical. They have also been attenuated (stretched) so that some of the layers are thinned out. The rocks have been brecciated (crushed) to some extent, which provides a probable explanation for the strange towers and pinnacles found here and there along Cottonwood Wash Road. Groundwater following the fractures would have left mineral deposits that had the effect of reinforcing and cementing some of the most deformed rocks. Erosion removed the surrounding softer rocks leaving behind the towers and spires.

Pareidolia is the tendency of humans to build patterns out of randomness, seeing things that aren't really there: faces in clouds, and human or animal figures in rocks. Who does the rock below bring to mind?

The final rock in our little mini-tour of the Grand Staircase is Grosvenor Arch, which is really two arches, and which once was called Butler Arch until people on an expedition with the National Geographical Society decided to name it after their boss. They apparently had more pull with the Board of Geographic Names. It's not part of the monocline, but is instead at the boundary between two layers of different erosional resistance. The upper rock is a conglomerate equivalent to the early Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation, while the lower layer is the Henrieville Sandstone of Jurassic age. The largest opening is 152 feet high and 100 feet wide.

Lastly I have pictures of flowers. Despite the ongoing drought, there were some beautiful wildflowers blooming in one of the side canyons we explored. There were Evening Primroses...

...and some beautiful Sego Lilies, the state flower of Utah.

What to do? Playing the Slots (Canyons, that is)

One of the most beautiful sights you will ever see is a slot canyon on the Colorado Plateau. Formations like the Navajo Sandstone are good cliff-forming rock layers, and yet they are easily eroded under the right circumstances. Flash floods carry a lot of abrasive sediment, and they work quickly to turn the slightest crevice into an intricately winding maze that can be dozens, even hundreds of feet deep and only a few feet wide.

Add to the maze-like labyrinth the glow of the fierce desert sun, and the rock seems to glow. Exploring a slot canyon can be an exercise in spiritual awareness.

Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona on the lands of the Navajo Nation is regarded by many to be one of the finest slot canyons in existence. The gulch that formed it drains a region of many square miles, and flash floods can deliver tons of sand in a matter of minutes in water/mud twenty feet deep.

 We traveled through it yesterday, and I wanted to share some of the photographic results....

Antelope Canyon embodies a sort of perfection of form and light...the crossbedding structure of the ancient sand dunes adds wonderfully to the texture.

 And the darkness contrasting with the light presents a wonderful challenge to the photographer.

As our visit continued, the sun rose higher, casting more beams of light in the greatest depths of the gorge.

It was just as perfect a moment of spiritual peace and recognition of the paradox of chaos and order in the Universe that one can imagine. Except for one thing. One really important thing...we had to pay a pretty penny for the privilege, and we were conducted through the canyon like cows being herded onto a cattle train...and thus comes the paradoxical question: What to do about it? How to find some way of centering the spirit and finding the peace and solitude so many of us covet?

Well, I suppose you seek out the ragged little sibling canyon that isn't so perfect. Maybe a part of the Navajo Sandstone that has been broken and jointed by the compression of the Earth's crust. Maybe a canyon carved not by mushes of sand and mud, but battered by boulders of solid chunks of rock. A canyon with unstable walls that can collapse and fall without warning.

Maybe you seek out a canyon like Cottonwood Wash in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument...no admission fee, no guides, no people, just quiet.

 And a different kind of beauty: a hard edged beauty. Not as colorful, but full of character.

So, really: how do you choose? Perfection, but with crowds and cattle prods? Or a roughhewn rugged beauty with intense solitude and serenity?

 For me it is no contest...solitude wins out every time. But there is the other solution to the quandary...

 You do both! And that is why yesterday was a great day....

I know of lots of other slot canyons out there. What are your favorites?