[Illustration: THE NEEDLES, looking southwest from Squaw Flat. (Fig.
49)]
[Illustration: CHESLER PARK IN THE NEEDLES, aerial view looking
northeast. Photograph by Walter Meayers Edwards, © 1971 National
Geographic Society. (Fig. 50)]
The northeastern edge of The Needles proper can be seen from Squaw Flat
(fig. 49), but the true character of The Needles can be appreciated
better from the air (fig. 50). You cannot get far into The Needles
without traversing part of The Grabens, so we will consider them
together. An aerial oblique view (fig. 51) shows The Needles in the
foreground and The Grabens in the middle background. As shown on the map
(fig. 1), you can hike into The Needles and The Grabens from Squaw Flat,
but let us make the trip using a four-wheel-drive vehicle and several
short hikes.
[Illustration: THE NEEDLES AND THE GRABENS, aerial oblique view
looking west over Chesler Park in foreground, The Grabens to the
right, and Cataract Canyon behind. Photograph by U.S. Army Air
Force. (Fig. 51)]
Ordinary passenger cars now can go 2¾ miles west of Squaw Flat to Soda
Spring, at the east base of Elephant Hill, but beyond Soda Spring
four-wheel-drive vehicles should be used. Some people conquer the hill
in dune buggies or on motorcycles, but this is considered quite
dangerous. Both sides of this short (1¼ miles) but formidable hill have
switchback curves too sharp to negotiate in the regular manner, so
special driving techniques must be followed. On the east side, you must
drive out on a flat rock, jockey back and forth until turned completely
around, then proceed up the hill. On the west side, you descend a
40-percent grade to a shelf, _back_ down a narrow stretch of about
30-percent grade and back sharply to the left onto a flat rock, then go
forward again. On the return trip the whole procedure is carried out in
reverse order.
West of Elephant Hill, the road reaches a Y, at which you must turn left
on a one-way road; the right-hand road is for later one-way return to
the Y. Why the left-hand fork is one way soon becomes apparent, for the
road leads into a narrow shallow graben, called Devils Pocket (fig. 51),
between rock walls, and is barely wide enough for one car. After about 2
miles the graben widens out into a beautiful spot called the Devils
Kitchen, which contains several picnic tables tucked into shady recesses
in the sandstone walls. This is the starting point for two trails
leading southward by different routes to Chesler Park, from which other
trails lead to Druid Arch or back to Squaw Flat.
From the Devils Kitchen, the road turns abruptly westward for about half
a mile to another Y in about the middle of Devils Lane, one of the
larger grabens and one of two whose entire length is traversed by roads,
as shown on the map (fig. 1). Only the left fork is a two-way road, so
let us take the left fork 2¾ miles southwestward to the next road
junction. About halfway down Devils Lane, a fault crossing the graben
has created a narrow steep ridge appropriately called SOB Hill, because
the road over it creates a challenge that some vehicles fail to meet on
the first attempt!
The next road intersection is now shown on the map (fig. 1) as a sharp
turn leading southwest to Ruin Park and Beef Basin. The abandoned left
fork (not shown) leads east into Chesler Park. This park, shown in
figure 50 and near the bottom of figure 51, is a beautiful natural
meadow of several hundred acres fenced by a natural wall of needles and
containing a central island of needles. Because of vehicular damage to
meadow vegetation, the National Park Service found it necessary to close
the road. To reach Chesler Park now, vehicles must go right a short
distance to the Chesler Canyon turnoff, then left about half a mile to a
parking area. From here, a ½-mile hike east through the narrow Joint
Trail gets us to the south side of Chesler Park, where we join the
abandoned road to reach the northeast corner of the park and the trails
into The Needles proper (fig. 1).
This change adds 1¾ miles (one way) to the hike to Druid Arch, making
the round trip about 11½ miles. At the old trailhead, near the northeast
corner of Chesler Park, is a sign proclaiming the need for rubber-soled
shoes and water, and I strongly support these admonitions, for much of
the hike is on bare smooth sandstone and includes steep slopes and
_generally_ dry waterfalls. The hike should not be attempted by anyone
not in good physical condition, and it should not be undertaken alone;
two or more people should travel together.
As shown in figure 52, the trail to Druid Arch from Chesler Park starts
out on bare Cedar Mesa Sandstone marked by a succession of rock cairns,
two of which are visible and without which the trail would soon be lost.
The trail drops rapidly down into Elephant Canyon, which is then
followed southward 2 miles to the arch. This canyon has cut through the
Cedar Mesa into the underlying Rico Formation, and much of the canyon is
quite narrow and steep sided, as shown in figure 53. Although much of
the Rico consists of red beds laid down above sea level by ancient
streams, the trail crosses several thin beds of dark-gray hard limestone
containing fossil marine seashells and ancient sea anemones whose
original calcium carbonate parts have been locally replaced by jasper
(red iron-bearing silica). When at last the weary hiker makes the steep
climb out of the canyon and rounds the final bare-rock curve, the sudden
and striking view of Druid Arch (fig. 54) seems worth every bit of the
effort—at least it was to me and my hiking companion.
After my friend and I hiked to Druid Arch and after the length of this
route was increased to a round-trip distance of 11½ miles, a new route
was constructed having a round-trip length of only 8½ miles. This new
trail starts at the end of the passenger-car road at the east edge of
Elephant Hill, goes 1¼ miles southwest to join an older trail in
Elephant Canyon, then follows this canyon 3 miles south to the arch.
[Illustration: TRAIL TO DRUID ARCH, near its beginning at northeast
corner of Chesler Park, marked only by rock cairns, two of which are
visible. (Fig. 52)]
[Illustration: UPPER ELEPHANT CANYON, containing trail to Druid
Arch. (Fig. 53)]
[Illustration: DRUID ARCH, from end of arduous trail shown in
figures 52 and 53. (Fig. 54)]
After returning to our vehicle west of Chesler Park and backtracking
over SOB Hill to the intersection in the middle of Devils Lane, let us
proceed northward on a one-way road to and beyond the Silver Stairs for
a closer look at Devils Lane and other grabens to the west and for a
look at the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. But first let
us pause and reflect upon the possible origin of The Grabens.
Geologists have different opinions as to just how grabens and complex
systems of joints have formed, but all seem to agree that tensional
forces were involved. Some think that solution of salt and gypsum from
the Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation by ground-water movement
allowed the brittle Cedar Mesa Sandstone and other overlying rocks to
sag, producing tension cracks and faults. Others believe that removal of
the salt and gypsum occurred by plastic flowage toward the Meander
anticline (see p. 108 and fig. 61), whose axis follows the Colorado
River southwest from The Loop, past the confluence, and to and beyond
Spanish Bottom. Some suppose that compaction due to the weight of the
abnormally thick pile of sedimentary rock underlying the area may have
caused the sagging, cracking, and faulting. The rock deformation may
have resulted from a combination of these and possibly other things, of
course, but whatever the cause, the resulting features are very
striking. There was room to show only two of the named grabens within
the park on the map (fig. 1), but all are shown in figure 51, and
several appear in figure 59. A diagramatic cross section of a typical
graben is shown in figure 55. The tension faults shown in figures 55 and
56 are called normal faults, in contrast to faults formed by horizontal
compression, which are called reverse faults (figs. 75, 76).
The Grabens range in width from about 7 or 8 feet at the north end of
Devils Pocket to nearly 2,000 feet at the south end of Red Lake Canyon,
but the average width is about 500 feet. The floors of The Grabens are
covered by soil and grass, but the displacement along the faults is
believed to approximate the height of the walls—nearly 300 feet. That
The Grabens are of fairly recent origin is attested by the fact that
most of the walls are vertical fault faces showing little sign of
erosion (fig. 57); that no through drainage has yet been established in
Cyclone Canyon, which is a series of basins with low divides between;
and that several pre-existing streams were interrupted or diverted by
the faulting.
[Illustration: A SIMPLE GRABEN, formed by tension in directions
indicated by horizontal arrows. Downdropped central block is the
graben; stationary or uplifted blocks on sides are called horsts.
From Hansen (1969, p. 123). See also figure 76. (Fig. 55)]
[Illustration: CUTAWAY VIEW OF NORMAL FAULT, resulting from tension
in and lengthening of the earth’s crust. Note amount of displacement
and repetition of strata. Compare with figure 76. From Hansen (1969,
p. 116). (Fig. 56)]
Now let us continue our journey northward along Devils Lane. Just before
reaching the Silver Stairs we may wish to pause long enough to take in
the distant view to the northwest toward Junction Butte and Grand View
Point. (See frontispiece.) After descending the steep Silver Stairs in a
narrow cleft between rock walls, we reach another intersection: a
two-way road continuing northwest goes to our destination, and a one-way
road turning right returns to Elephant Hill via part of Elephant Canyon
(fig. 58).
About 2 miles to the northwest we cross the north end of Cyclone Canyon,
the largest graben. It contains a road 3½ miles long and is well worth
seeing. About one-half mile from the south end, an old trail follows Red
Lake and Lower Red Lake Canyons to the Colorado River across from
Spanish Bottom (figs. 1, 61).
From near the north end of Cyclone Canyon (figs. 1, 59), we drive west
three-fourths mile to a parking area and hike one-half mile to an
overlook for a spectacular view of the confluence of the Green and
Colorado Rivers (figs. 59, 60) and of the northern part of Cataract
Canyon (fig. 61). These and other canyons are discussed in the next
chapter.
[Illustration: WEST WALL OF CYCLONE CANYON GRABEN, a nearly vertical
fault face showing little sign of erosion. (Fig. 57)]
[Illustration: LOWER ELEPHANT CANYON, followed by jeep trail from
near Silver Stairs to Elephant Hill. (Fig. 58)]
[Illustration: THE CONFLUENCE FROM THE AIR, and some of The Grabens.
See also figure 51. Vertical aerial photograph by U.S. Geological
Survey. (Fig. 59)]
[Illustration: THE CONFLUENCE FROM CONFLUENCE OVERLOOK, shown in
figures 1 and 59. Green River entering from left, Colorado River
from right. Red beds near top are Rico Formation, overlain by Cedar
Mesa Sandstone and underlain by unnamed upper member of Hermosa
Formation. (Fig. 60)]
[Illustration: CATARACT CANYON, from the rim, looking south to
Spanish Bottom at bend. Beds dip to left and right away from
Colorado River, which here is followed by axis of Meander anticline.
(See p. 108). Cliff below overhanging rock resembles profile of a
man; the rock resembles his hat. Photograph by Walter Meayers
Edwards, © 1971 National Geographic Society. (Fig. 61)]