One Could Almost Imagine

from the journal of John Wesley Powell:
July 30, 1869/

We make good progress today, as the water, though smooth, is swift. Sometimes, the canyon walls are vertical to the top. Sometimes, they are vertival below, and have a mound-covered slope above. In other places, the slope with its mounds, comes down to the water's edge.
Still proceeding on our way, we find the orange sandstone is cut in two by a group of firm calcareous strata, and the lower bed is underlaid by soft, gypsiferous shales. Sometimes, the upper homogenous bed is a smooth vertical wall, but usually it is carved with mounds, with gently meandering valley lines. The lower bed, yielding to gravity, as the softer shales below work out into the river, breaks into angular surfaces, often having a columnar appearance. One could almost imagine that the walls had been carved with a purpose, to represent giant architechtural forms.
In the deep recesses of the walls, we find springs, with mosses and ferns on the moistened sandstone.

Little Colorado River (top)
outside Mineral Canyon (middle)
Powell Plateau from Serpentine Rapids (below)