As indicated earlier, all but one of the early river voyages began on
the Green River. The Grand (Colorado) River above the confluence was
neglected for some 18 years after Powell’s second voyage, until, in
1889, Frank M. Brown organized a company for construction of the
proposed Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific Railway. This railroad was
to carry coal from mines in Colorado over a “water-level” line through
the canyons of the Colorado River to the Gulf of California some 1,200
miles away; from there the coal would presumably be shipped to ports as
far north as San Francisco (Dellenbaugh, 1902, p. 343-369). On March 26,
1889, Brown, president, F. C. Kendrick, chief engineer, and T. P.
Rigney, assistant engineer, drove the first stake for a survey of the
new line at Grand Junction, Colo., then Brown left for the East to
obtain financing, and the other two plus some hired hands took off down
the Grand River. After reaching the confluence they towed the boat up
the Green River, thus becoming the first to make this trip upstream.
They nearly ran out of food, but thanks to the hospitality of some
cattlemen, they replenished their stock and after about 9 days reached
the railroad at Green River, Utah. Brown, who had returned from the
East, his newly appointed chief engineer, Robert Brewster Stanton, and
14 others in six ill-designed boats of cedar, rather than oak, left
Green River on May 25, 1889. Against the advice of Major Powell and A.
H. Thompson, Powell’s topographer on the 1871 trip, they carried no life
preservers. After many mishaps, Brown and two others were drowned near
the head of Marble Canyon, and the ill-fated expedition was temporarily
halted. However, the indefatigable Stanton contracted for new boats
built of oak and, with a reorganized party of 12, left the mouth of the
Fremont (Dirty Devil) River on November 25. After many further mishaps,
the party finally reached the Gulf of California on April 26, 1890.
Needless to say the proposed railway was not built.
Although the Colorado River enters Canyonlands National Park about 33
river miles below Moab, most boaters or floaters begin their voyage
either at Moab or near Potash, and most travelers of the White Rim Trail
begin at Moab, so we will start our trip at Moab. No logs or river
runners’ guides are available as yet for the reach from Moab to Potash,
but below Potash some details of the geology have been described by
Baars in Baars and Molenaar (1971, p. 59-87).
As noted at the beginning of this chapter, above the confluence both the
Green and Colorado Rivers are very crooked, have very low grades, and
are free from rapids. As with the Green, the soft rocks along the
Colorado have a generally low northward dip that partly explains the
river’s gentle grade and its southward flow through increasingly lower
and older strata. Unlike the Green, however, the gentle dips of the
strata in the canyons of the Colorado are interrupted by several gentle
anticlinal (fig. 14) and synclinal (fig. 26) folds and by at least one
fault. The most important of these geologic structures and other
features will be noted as we journey down the river.
The first 14 miles from Moab Valley to Potash can be made either by
river or by paved Utah Highway 279. This highway leaves U.S. Highway 163
near the uranium ore-reduction plant several miles northwest of Moab,
leaves Moab Valley through The Portal (fig. 68), and follows the west
bank of the river. A paved secondary road from Moab follows the east
bank of the river through The Portal and through Kings Bottom, where it
crosses the Kings Bottom syncline, to the mouth of Kane Springs Canyon,
then becomes a gravel road that ascends this canyon southward to and
beyond Hurrah Pass (fig. 30). High above this road north of Kings Bottom
are petroglyphs and a few cliff dwellings in the vertical cliffs of
Wingate Sandstone. A ranch “house” at Kings Bottom has been excavated
entirely into the Wingate cliff. Convenient turnouts have been provided
at several places along Highway 279 for viewing petroglyphs or other
points of interest. Small viewing tubes welded to vertical steel posts
having signs help visitors locate and see the features described.
[Illustration: THE PORTAL, in south wall of Moab Valley, through
which the Colorado River, Utah Highway 279 (on right), and a paved
secondary road (on left) leave the valley to enter the canyons in
and above Canyonlands National Park. Rounded remnants on top are
Navajo Sandstone; cliffs are Kayenta Formation and Wingate
Sandstone; red slopes are Chinle and Moenkopi Formations, and
perhaps a little of the Cutler Formation at the base. Light-colored
patches at base of slope behind trees on left are contorted
intrusions of Paradox Member of Hermosa Formation. (Fig. 68).]
The Kings Bottom syncline (fig. 30) southwest of Moab Valley brings the
Navajo Sandstone down to and slightly below water level, whereas at The
Portal (fig. 68) the Navajo caps the southwest wall of Moab Valley.
Several anticlines at or near the river from Potash to and beyond the
confluence (fig. 1) bring up strata as old as the Rico or the unnamed
upper member of the Hermosa. Between these extremes, much of the river’s
course lies in strata of the Cutler Formation.
About 7 miles below The Portal, Highway 279 is joined on the right by a
branch line of the Denver and Rio Grand Western Railroad completed in
1962 to haul potash 36 miles from the mine at Potash north to the main
line at Crescent Junction. The railroad emerges from a tunnel at the
head of Bootlegger Canyon. Two natural arches near the mouth of the
tunnel—Pinto and Little Rainbow Bridge—can be reached by trail. About 3
miles farther down the Colorado is a temporary dock from which jet boats
and the _Canyon King_, a 93-foot 150-passenger stern-wheeler, take off
for points downriver during the spring and early summer, when water
depth permits. The _Canyon King_ (fig. 69), a small replica of a
Mississippi River stern-wheeler, carries passengers about 30 miles
downriver to the foot of Dead Horse Point and returns (Lansford, 1972).
About 12 miles below The Portal we reach Potash—the potash “mine” (fig.
70) of Texas Gulf, Inc. (See fig. 31 and its associated text for
description of operation.) Travelers down the jeep trail below Potash
pass the evaporation ponds (fig. 71) used to separate the potash from
common salt.
[Illustration: THE _CANYON KING_, a 93-foot 150-passenger
stern-wheeler which hauls passengers some 30 miles below Potash and
returns. Trips run during the spring and early summer, when water
depth permits. Photograph by Henry Lansford, Boulder, Colo. (Fig.
69)]
[Illustration: POTASH MINE OF TEXAS GULF, INC. at Potash, as viewed
from a boat. High cliffs on right are Wingate Sandstone capped by
Kayenta Formation and underlain by slopes of Chinle and Moenkopi
Formations. (Fig. 70)]
[Illustration: EVAPORATION PONDS, used to separate potash from
common salt, viewed from jeep trail. Black borders are parts of
plastic membranes covering bottoms of ponds. Crest of Cane Creek
anticline and La Sal Mountains in right background. (Fig. 71)]
Across the river east from Potash is Jackson Hole, a large rincon. Since
abandonment, which shortened the river by about 3½ miles, the river has
cut its channel nearly 200 feet deeper. It is comparable in size to the
large rincon along Green River below Bowknot Bend (p. 90) but probably
is somewhat younger. Both rincons may be as old as late Tertiary (fig.
80). Just below Potash we cross the axis of the huge Cane Creek
anticline (fig. 31) and also leave Grand County to enter San Juan
County. A mile east of this point, high on the canyon wall, is the
School Section 13 uranium mine, which has yielded considerable ore and
is expected to resume production sometime during 1973. It can be seen
from the river or the trail, and some of the tailings are visible on the
left flank of the anticline in figure 13.
Voyagers who cross the axis of the Cane Creek anticline may observe on
the right-hand (west) bank a protruding oil-well casing, some drill
bits, and several shacks—all that remain of the Frank Shafer No. 1 oil
test started during the winter of 1924-25 and completed by the Midwest
Exploration Co. (Baker, 1933, p. 81). As described by Maxine Newell
(U.S. Natl. Park Service, written commun., 1970),
The well blew in in December 1925, caught fire, and spewed burning oil
300 feet into the air. * * * The local Times-Independent newspaper
called it “Mother Nature’s Christmas Gift to Grand County.” The gusher
burned down the rig, a barge of equipment, and it took three months to
get it under control. Then it didn’t produce.
Various 1925 and 1926 issues of the Moab Times-Independent reported that
despite many efforts to plug the well, it continued to flow from 1,000
to several thousand barrels of oil per day for 6 months or more, all of
which floated down the river. The last blowout occurred in 1937, after
which the well was plugged with an additional 180 tons of cement.
Mrs. Newell added,
The stories told of the early-day exploration are endless and
delightful. Equipment and supplies were barged down the Colorado River
by the old Moab Garage Company; in winter months materials were
carried by team and sled over the river ice. They would take a couple
of rig timbers and pile a lot of lumber on them (they could take
10,000 feet), then we’d give them a start with a crowbar and the mules
would trot all the way downhill to the well. When they’d get there
they had a little trouble stopping sometimes; they would turn into the
bank, unload, then put the double trees on one mule, ride the other,
and head back for a new load of rig lumber.
The evaporation ponds shown in figures 31 and 71 are in Shafer Basin, a
synclinal basin separating the Cane Creek anticline and Shafer dome. We
cross the axis of Shafer Basin about 2 miles below the county line.
Further downstream is Shafer dome, a closed anticlinal bulge just beyond
the W-shaped bend in the river as shown in figure 29. Parts of the dome
also show up in the lower right of figure 13 and the lower left of
figure 15. From almost anywhere in the Goose Neck, the sharp bend of the
river shown in figure 15, we get an excellent view of Dead Horse Point
some 2,000 feet above.
Robert R. Norman (oral commun. Feb. 27, 1973) described to me a small
petrified forest—which he said resembles a log jam—in the eastern part
of the Shafer dome, at mileage 39 (Baars and Molenaar, 1971, p. 65),
just north of this point about half way between the river and the jeep
trail below Dead Horse Point. He estimated that there probably are 20 to
30 logs, some of which are as large as 18 inches in diameter and more
than 20 feet long, and also described a stump about 3 feet in diameter.
They occur in red beds at about the middle of the Rico Formation, hence
could be either Pennsylvanian or Permian in age (figs. 9, 80). The
original wood has been replaced by silica (SiO₂) and stained a dark
reddish brown, as shown in figure 72.
Mr. Norman and his brother also discovered many teeth of a primitive
sharklike fish in the Rico Formation at the same general locality as the
petrified wood and also in the Rico on the Cane Creek anticline. I
submitted two of the teeth to Dr. David H. Dunkle, curator of the
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, who reported them to be “one tooth
of the cochliodont ‘shark’ _Deltodus_, and one tooth of the petalodont
‘shark’ _Petalodus_” (written commun., May 22, 1973).
About 4 miles below the Goose Neck, we enter Canyonlands National Park
and remain in the park almost to the north end of Lake Powell.
About 6½ miles into the park, at the north end of a bend much like the
Goose Neck, is the mouth of Lathrop Canyon, where many boaters stop for
lunch and where a side road connects with the White Rim Trail (fig. 1).
Six and one half miles below Lathrop Canyon is the mouth of Rustler
Canyon, which is joined near its mouth by Indian Creek—the creek
followed by the highway leading to The Needles from U.S. 163. Within an
airline distance of only 3 miles, the lower reach of Indian Creek, an
intermittent stream, flows past four small rincons, three of which (fig.
73) are within an airline distance of only 0.8 mile. The stream has cut
its new channel into the red sandstones and shales of the Cutler
Formation only 15 to 20 feet deeper than the abandoned ones in the two
rincons at the left in figure 73 and only about 25 feet deeper than the
one on the right. These figures suggest, at least to me, that these
cutoffs probably occurred sometime during the Holocene Epoch, or age of
man—that is, probably within the last 10,000 years (fig. 80). A detailed
study of these rincons might change this estimate, particularly if, say,
buried driftwood or other carbonaceous material could be found for an
age determination by the radiocarbon method.
[Illustration: PETRIFIED LOG, near middle of Rico Formation, about 1
mile southeast of Dead Horse Point. Log is estimated to be about 18
inches in diameter. Photograph by Robert R. Norman. (Fig. 72)]
[Illustration: RELATIVELY RECENT RINCONS ALONG INDIAN CREEK, about
3½ miles above mouth and about 2 miles east of Canyonlands National
Park. Above, stereoscopic pair of aerial photographs by U.S.
Geological Survey; below, sketch showing drainage changes. The
stereoscopic pair can be viewed without optical aids by those
accustomed to this procedure, or by use of a simple double-lens
stereoscope. (Fig. 73)]
[Illustration: Figure 73, diagram]
[Illustration: THE LOOP, of Colorado River, about 5 miles northeast
of the confluence. Lower canyon walls are unnamed upper member of
Hermosa Formation overlain by slopes of the Rico Formation. Jointed
sandy ledges at top become sandier to south, where they comprise the
Cedar Mesa Sandstone. Aerial photograph by U.S. Geological Survey.
(Fig. 74)]
About 5 miles below the mouth of Rustler Canyon and Indian Creek, and
also about 5 miles above the confluence, is The Loop—an even sharper and
more symmetrical figure eight than Bowknot Bend of the Green River (fig.
62). An aerial view of The Loop (fig. 74) shows that the channels on the
south loop are only about 500 feet apart and that those on the north
loop are only about 1,700 feet apart. At the narrowest places, both
saddles are considerably eroded—the southern one is only about 150 feet
above the river, but the northern one is still about 350 feet above.
Erosion of both saddles has been hastened by the facts that the axis of
the Meander anticline (see p. 108) passes through each saddle and that
an interesting reverse fault (fig. 75) passes through the lower and
thinner southern saddle. The differences between reverse and normal
faults are shown by comparing figures 56 and 76. It seems inevitable
that some day the small saddle will be cut through by the Colorado
River, and a new rincon will result. Eventually, the other loop also
probably will be abandoned. As one of my colleagues remarked, how
wonderful it would seem, to be present at the proper moment to witness
such an event, particularly if one had a time-lapse movie camera to
record it for posterity!
[Illustration: REVERSE FAULT in southern saddle of The Loop, looking
northwest from boat in river. Apparent angle of dip is 12° below
horizontal. Rocks at left, above fault plane, have been shoved about
10 feet past and over those on right. Curving of dark bed near
middle of fault plane is called “drag.” (See fig. 76.) Rocks are
unnamed upper member of Hermosa Formation. (Fig. 75)]
[Illustration: CUTAWAY VIEW OF REVERSE FAULT, resulting from
horizontal compression, which caused a shortening of earth’s crust.
Note “drag” of beds on each side of fault plane. Low-angle reverse
faults, also called thrust faults, may have displacements ranging
from a few feet to many miles. From Hansen (1969, p. 116). (Fig.
76)]
About a mile and a half below the south saddle of The Loop we meet the
mouth of Salt Creek, which drains a large part of the Needles district.
Figure 77 was taken in Salt Creek canyon about 2 airline miles above the
mouth looking southeast toward Six-Shooter Peaks and Shay Mountain,
northernmost of the Abajo Mountains, on the horizon.
A mile and a half above the confluence is The Slide, a jumbled mass of
angular blocks of rock that fell from the northwest canyon wall and
originally probably extended all the way to the southeast bank of the
river. As shown in figure 78, it still extends nearly across the river,
leaving only a narrow deep chute along the southeast bank. Just after
the photograph was taken, we hit rough fast water in the chute, with
waves about 2 feet high. At higher stages of the river, progressively
more of The Slide is covered by water, and there is less tendency for
waves to form. The date of this landslide is not known, but it is shown
on a map by Herron (1917, pl. 22A) made prior to 1917 and may well have
occurred during prehistoric times.
Soon we reach the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers (figs. 59,
60). This important junction of two mighty rivers was noted by all
previous voyagers, but their impressions of it differed considerably.
Powell (1875, p. 56) remarked:
These streams unite in solemn depths, more than one thousand two
hundred feet below the general surface of the country. The walls of
the lower end of Stillwater Cañon are very beautifully curved [see
fig. 67], as the river sweeps in its meandering course. The lower end
of the cañon through which the Grand comes down, is also regular, but
much more direct, and we look up this stream, and out into the country
beyond, and obtain glimpses of snow clad peaks, the summits of a group
of mountains known as the Sierra La Sal [La Sal Mountains]. Down the
Colorado, the cañon walls are much broken.
Dellenbaugh (1902, p. 277) gave a fuller description but concluded: “In
every way the Junction is a desolate place”—an appraisal with which I
disagree. The most colorful account I have read is that of Captain
Francis Marion Bishop, a member of Powell’s 1871 expedition, who
recorded in his journal for September 15, 1871 (1947, p. 202):
Well, we are at last, after many days of toil and labor, here at the
confluence of the two great arteries of this great mountain desert. No
more shall our frail boats dash through thy turbid waters, Old Green,
and no more shall we press on to see the dark flood from the peaks and
parks of Colorado. Grand and Green here sink to thy rest, and from thy
grave the _Colorado de Grande_ shall flow on forever, and on thy bosom
henceforth will we battle with rock and wave. One can hardly tell
which is the largest of the two rivers. Neither seems to flow into the
other, but there seems to be a blending of both, and from their union
rolls the Colorado River.
[Illustration: SALT CREEK CANYON, looking southeast from point on
rim 2 miles above mouth. Lower ledges are limestones in unnamed
upper member of Hermosa Formation; slope and upper cliff are Rico
Formation capped by remnants of Cedar Mesa Sandstone. Horizon shows
Six-Shooter Peaks in center and Shay Mountain, northernmost of Abajo
Mountains, at right. Photograph by E. N. Hinrichs. (Fig. 77)]
[Illustration: THE SLIDE, which partly blocks the Colorado River
about 1½ miles above the confluence. View downstream. (Fig. 78).]
Cataract Canyon heads at the confluence, but the rapids do not appear
until we leave Spanish Bottom some 3½ miles below. Between The Loop and
Spanish Bottom, the Colorado River follows closely the axis of an
anticline. Along this reach the rock strata dip downward away from the
river, as shown in figure 61. This fold was noted by Powell and some of
his men, and Bishop (1947, p. 203) reported in his journal for September
16, 1871:
He [Steward] is at a loss how to account for the folded appearance of
the strata here. But doubtless will find some explanation. Says the
dip recedes from the river cañon, and thinks it is a fissure. Maj.
[Powell] thinks it is owing to an upheaval, and that the beds next to
the river have broken up from the mass, etc., etc.
Forty-four years later Harrison (1927) named this structure the Meander
anticline and concluded that the weight of the rocks on each side of the
river had squeezed underlying beds of salt in the Paradox Member of the
Hermosa Formation and caused them to move upward along the river, where
the confining strata had been removed by erosion. Harrison’s theory was
accepted by Baker (1933) and most later workers in the area. Thus we
have what may be termed an erosional anticline, whose axis, or crest,
follows the river. Erosional anticlines also occur elsewhere, as along
the Eagle and Roaring Fork valleys of central Colorado. Mutschler and
Hite (1969) suggested that this zone of weakness in Canyonlands overlies
and follows a break in the hard Precambrian (fig. 80) rocks that
underlie the area at great depth. At any rate, Powell was on the right
track even though he was totally unaware of the underlying salt or the
deep-seated fault.
Smooth water continues from the confluence to Spanish Bottom, where the
Old Spanish Trail comes down to the river from the west and continues up
Lower Red Lake Canyon to the east. As mentioned earlier, this is about
the south end of the Meander anticline, and an intruded chunk of the
Paradox Member, mostly gypsum, occupies part of the mouth of Lower Red
Lake Canyon, as shown in figure 79.
The remaining 10 miles or so of Cataract Canyon within Canyonlands
National Park contains many rapids and should be traversed only under
the leadership of experienced river guides. If and when Lake Powell
reaches its maximum level, it will extend to within about a mile of the
park, but at present (1973) it heads near the mouth of Gypsum Canyon,
about 5 miles below the park.
[Illustration: GYPSUM PLUG of Paradox Member, intruded along south
end of Meander anticline at mouth of Lower Red Lake Canyon. Common
salt has been removed by solution, leaving residue of gypsum and
some shale. Photograph by Donald L. Baars. (Fig. 79)]
[Illustration: Petroglyph]
[Illustration: GEOLOGIC TIME SPIRAL, showing the sequence, names,
and ages of the geologic eras, periods, and epochs, and the
evolution of plant and animal life on land and in the sea. The
primitive animals that evolved in the sea during the vast
Precambrian Era left few traces in the rocks because they had not
developed hard parts such as shells, but hard shells or skeletal
parts became abundant during and after the Paleozoic Era. (Fig. 80)]