Dinosaurs at Toroweap

More wildlife

I saw 3 scorpions the day I took this picture and was getting a little concerned. That evening I shook out my shoes and my bed very well before using. I haven't seen another one since so my concern was probably too much, although I still look carefully where I put my hands.

My Camp

Night Visitor

  While reading one evening last week this Kangaroo rat moved through my camp. It was not too concerned about my presence so I managed to get this one picture. I believe it is a Merriam's Kangaroo Rat. If someone has another idea about the identification, let me know.

Pothole Life

The pictures attached show the potholes in the rock surface on which I'm living. It's called the Esplanade and it erodes into many shapes that hold water. There are many life forms supported by this summer water including the life shown in these pictures. There are 2 shrimp species shown and toad polliwogs. The larger of the 2 shrimp species is about and inch long and the other about the same but much less bulky. All of these animals hatch, grow, reproduce, and lay eggs that resist the dry and hot environment until the next wet period.

Monsoon Moisture

We have had another week of monsoon moisture and it creates spectacular sky conditions. Here are a couple photos of the clouds and color from the past few days.

Nampaweap Petroglyphs

We visited this rock art site several days ago and these pictures represent only a small part of the petroglyphs present. The art work stretches for several hundred feet along the basalt cliff and talus field. I read it is thought to be on the route that the Anasazi and there predecessors used to access the Grand Canyon.

South West Monsoon

                                              My home for 7 weeks.

                                                The view from my table.

Look carefully for 2 boats in the lower part of the picture, headed toward Lava Falls Rapid. The first boat flipped and dumped everyone. The water is normally clear because of Glen Canyon Dam catching all the sediment but the monsoon rains produced a 25,000 cfs flood out of a side canyon that muddied the Colorado.

I've been at Toroweap for several days and am settling into my camp. We've had Monsoon moisture around for several days and it has produced a lot of rain. The ranger station had 0.9 inches one day and 0.3 inches the next. Not bad for an area that receives about 7 inches a year on the average and about half of that is usually snow in December and January. It sounds like another Monsoon pattern is setting up so there may be more rain. I'm in town for the day picking up mail and getting one of the vehicles serviced. I will head back to Toroweap tomorrow.

Lava at Toroweap

Several faults cross the Colorado River near Toroweap Point and much volcanic activity has originated along these faults. As recently as 600,000 years ago there were lava flows that dammed the river for unknown periods of time. One of these flows produced a dam across the Colorado River over 2,000 feet high. If it lasted long enough, it would have produced a natural reservoir nearly 300 miles long! Its upper reaches would have been near Moab, Utah. Imagine the hissing, fiery scene when lava flowed into the river. Also imagine a failure of a dam such as this one, as the river eroded it and caused it to fail, possibly catastrophically! As dramatic as the Toroweap area is today these geologic cataclysms would have been, literally, earth shattering in comparison.

                   Notice the black lava flow entering the canyon from the right side of the picture. Lava Falls can be seen just over the tan boulders in the foreground

Lizards & Snakes

                                                         Horned Lizard   ^

                                                           Collared Lizard   ^

                                                     Common Side-blotched Lizard   ^                       

                                                                 Whiptail   ^

 

Gopher Snake   ^

One spring afternoon of walking provided many opportunities for reptile pictures. The Gopher Snake looked like a string of beads with several bulges that must have been recent meals.

Toroweap in History

         Lava Falls is the prominent rapid in the lower picture. It is one of the largest and most feared rapids in the Grand Canyon

The area around Toroweap was first surveyed and studied in a systematic fashion by the John Wesley Powell expeditions in the late 1860's and the early 1870's. There are great quotes from this period of time that are included in the first published accounts of the Toroweap Point and surroundings. Here is one attributed to Clarence Dutton, the cartographer on one of the Powell expeditions. "It would be difficult to find anywhere else in the world... such dramatic and inspiring surroundings." Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, the artist on the second Powell expedition, Called Toroweap Point, "the Edge of the World." In Hiking the Grand Canyon, (2006) John Annerino says of Toroweap Point: "If you do nothing else just sit there. Take your time. Let the canyon whisper its secrets to you. But go see the edge." In several weeks I will be headed to Toroweap as a volunteer for Grand Canyon National Park and hope to do exactly that.