Cataract Canyon 4: Side canyons

(Continued from Cataract Canyon 3: Doll’s House)

Like overgrown sinuous tendrils, countless side canyons empty into the Colorado. Some are prodigious, some are diminutive, but all — when wet — carry sediment and debris inexorably down, down, down. All have discoveries worth seeking. Here are five.

Limestone makes an appearance in these sandstone canyons. Abundant fossils — crinoids, sponge spicules, and more — indicate that this area was covered by a tropical shallow sea.

Beavertail Cactus, a pricklypear unique for its spinelessness, is usually found much farther south. This purplish color is real.

Flash-flood-carved slots in the rock contain white foreground boulders the size of couches. One can only imagine the power of the torrent that moved them there in Water Canyon.

Wet sand captures animal tracks. Raccoon here, but plenty of beaver, kit fox, and ungulates (hoofed mammals) as well.

Archeological sites abound, including many granaries for storage of crops. It never ceases to amaze me how the ancestral Puebloans positioned these structures for difficult access. Double-click on the photo to better see the door in the center.

We’re all discoverers, on some level; it’s what humans do. What do you explore?

—  Continued at this link —