We Look Up To See But A Little Patch Of Sky

Van Morrison: Down the Road

Van Morrison: Fast Train

We remain at this point today for the purpose of determining the latitude and longitude, measuring the height of the walls, drying our rations, and repairing our boats.
I walk down the gorge to the left at the foot of the cliff, climb to a bench, and discover a trail deeply worn in the rock. Where it crosses the side gulches, in some places, steps have been cut. I can see no evidence of its having been traveled for a long time. It was doubtless a path used by the people who inhabited this country anterior to the present Indian races--the people who built communal houses, of which mention has been made.

I return to camp about three o'clock, and find that some of the men have discovered ruins, and many fragments of pottery; also, etchings and hieroglyphs on the rocks.
We find tonight, on comparing the readings of the barometers, that the walls are about three thousand feet high--more than half a mile--an altitude difficult to appreciate from a mere statement of fact. The ascent is made, not by a slope such as is usually found in climbing a mountain, but is much more abrupt--often vertical for many hundreds of feet--so that the impression is that we are at great depths. We look up to see but a little patch of sky.
--John Wesley Powell
journal entry for August 11, 1869

granite rapid
kids don't try this at home (tanner rapid)
powell plateau with serpentine rapid
plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
pottery shards, clear creek canyon
that very end of the world we were seeking