We Make Good Progress Today (7/30/1869)

We make good progress today,
as the water, though smooth,
is swift. Sometimes the canyon walls are vertical to the top. Sometimes, they are vertical below, and have a mound-shaped slope above it. 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
architectual forms.
In the deep recesses of the walls, we find springs,
with mosses and ferns
on the moistened sandstone.

--John Wesley Powell
journal entry for July 30, 1869

Max Romeo: One Step Forward

WESTWARD VIEW FROM OUTSIDE HORN CANYON (2)
OUTSIDE HANCE CANYON LOOKING EAST(2)
POIN'DEXTER PANORAMA