Photo by Kolb Brothers 



A le;ap in the interest of art : not as dangerous, 



HOWEVER, AS IT EOOKS 



Under the limestone is a bed of soft 

 shales, 500 or 600 feet in thickness, a 

 dark olive green in color, a covering of 

 sage and cactus changing its hue but very 

 little. The inner plateau, of w^hich w^e 

 have made previous mention, rests on 

 this formation. It varies from one 



the Grand Canyon. All the 

 upper rocks are stratified and 

 almost uniformly level, but 

 this lower gorge is twisted 

 and turned in every direction 

 (see page 131). This granite 

 is capped with a 200-fcot wall 

 of sandstone, a hard con- 

 glomerate rock which often 

 overhangs the granite ; an- 

 other very difficult formation 

 to pass except where inter- 

 mittent streams have broken 

 it down. 



pace from a geologist's 



DIARY 



We had neither of these 

 two formations at the Tanner 

 trail, for here was the one 

 notable exception to all this 

 uniformity. Underneath the 

 green shales we find an im- 

 mense deposit of algonkian, 

 which, we are told, is the ear- 

 liest form of deposited rock. 

 This section, or page it might 

 be termed, seems to hold more 

 of interest for the geologist 

 than any other portion of this 

 remarkable geologic book. 



We had no particular diffi- 

 culty in making the descent to 

 the river, where we camped 

 for the evening. 



On resuming our trip the 

 following morning, we found 

 enough difficult trail to make 

 up for our brief respite. In 

 low water it would have been 

 possiole to fohow along the river's edge, 

 but the spring flood was on at this time, 

 and that road was blocked. No trail had 

 been constructed above the river on the 

 steep slope ; but the numerous wild burros 

 which roamed over this section had worn 

 manv little trails which went nowhere in 



fourth of a mile to several miles in width, particular, but crossed and recrossed 



each other in endless confusion. One of 

 us would go ahead and figure out the best 

 road, then the other would drive the 

 burro up, scrambling and tumbling over 

 the fallen boulders. 



After four miles of such traveling we 

 reached an abandoned miners' camp on 

 a level spot below a perpendicular clifif. 

 Directlv above the camp an enormous 



depending on the locality. Nearly all of 

 the temples or peaks in the canyon rise 

 from this base. With the exception of 

 the little strip of canyon adjacent to the 

 Tanner trail (see page 118), any canyon 

 below the shale is quite narrow and very 

 precipitous. This deep, narrow section 

 is known as the Granite Gorge, perhaps 

 the wildest and most forbidding part of 



124 



