GRAND CANYON (Day 7 - part 2)
I decided to give the watchtower a quick climb. It's basically made of two parts... a large 'kiva' and the tower itself.
The kiva serves as an entry and sales room. It was designed to convey the feeling of being in an underground kiva. It even includes a symbolic fire ring and ladder that leads to the world above.
Going up to the first floor in the tower
The roof of the kiva
The first floor was known as the Hopi Room. The paintings were done by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie (whose work we saw at the Painted Desert). The images tell the stories of his heritage... of the Snake Legend, of Muyingwa (god of germination), of Lalakontu (a women's secret society), of a Hopi wedding, of Pookongahoya (a war god), of Baloongahoya (god of echo), of kachinas and of sacred corn meal. Petroglyphs were done by Chester Dennis, another Hopi artist.
Creating the artwork
Some wedding scenes
Muyingwa
Looking up at the second level, third level and ceiling
These chairs from 1933 were handcrafted by Edwin Wayne Cummings, who worked as a trail guide for the Fred Harvey Company for 31 years until his death in 1951.
Taking the stairs up to the next level
Both the second and third floors are decorated with petroglyphs and pictographs done by Fred Geary, who also worked for the Fred Harvey Company. He copied designs from other southwest sites and also of Mimbres pottery and sunshields.
The second floor...
... with a big center hole looking down...
... and up.
The third floor was also covered with native cultural imagery.
Fred Geary also did the ceiling, based on rock paintings found in New Mexico.
Looking down
Heading up to the top floor, finishing off the last of 85 stairs
The forth floor is the highest point along the south rim at 7,522 feet. Windows lining the room gave excellent views in all directions.
A view including the top of the kiva
Bill doesn't realize...
... he's being watched!
I headed back down the tower then wandered about the area briefly. Unfortunately the visitor center was closed, but there were plenty of informative signs about.
On June 30, 1956, a United Airlines plane and a TWA plane crashed at 21,000 feet above Temple and Chuar Buttes while trying to maneuver around some towering clouds. All 128 passengers and crew died. This was the deadliest crash in American commercial aviation history at the time and led to the creation of the Federal Aviation Administration to increase air safety.
The site of the crash was visible from here.
The canyon is about 1 mile deep and an average of 10 miles wide. The Colorado River has an average width of 300 feet.
People could fill their water bottles for free at this 'sign.' Heat exhaustion is a serious danger here so constant hydration is important.
We headed down the road to Navajo Point, the highest natural overlook on the South Rim.
What canyon, where?
Here is where the Colorado River makes a dramatic turn west, straight through the Kaibab Plateau. While it became understood that the river carved the canyon in 1861, it still remains a mystery as to why it chose this course.
The river lies 2,700 feet below.
Many tribes still live in and around the canyon, their ancestral home.
Some women sell their handmade jewelry.
Our next stop was Lipan Point (elevation 7,360 feet).
This is where many birds cross the canyon since it is only 8 miles wide (instead of 10) and has forests on either side.
The view to the east
A view of the Unkar Delta, where Ancestral Puebloans grew crops of corn, beans and squash a thousand years ago. The tilted rocks in the background are known as the Grand Canyon Supergroup. Originally deposited as flat layers dating back to 740 million to 1,200 million years ago, they became tilted due to massive faulting. The canyon's oldest fossils (of blue-green algae known as Stromatolites) are found here from back when this was a primeval shore and life had not yet begun to climb its way onto land. The rocks were then covered with 1,000 feet of lava.
The view to the west
Granite Gorge, Vishnu Basement Rock and Hance Rapid
The Vishnu Basement Rocks are the oldest at the canyon, consisting of both metamorphic and igneous rock. These hard, ancient rocks are much tougher than the top 4,000 feet of younger rock (which the river cut through in some 5 million years). And while the river still cuts today, it will uncover no more new rock layers for it has reached the very foundation of the continent. They are literally rock bottom.
Hance Rapid is one of the canyon's most hazardous whitewater rapids, including powerful water, ragged rocks and giant drops.
John Hance was the South Rim's first white settler. To reach some of his mining claims, he improved old trails down to the rapids. Later he would lead tourists.
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