1 Welcome to the Grand Canyon On August 17, 2009, newspapers around the United States published photos of the First Family peering over the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, part of a summer trip to the West. They, like so many families who had visited the canyon before and would continue to come in the times ahead, seemed captivated by the magnificence of the sight before them. Years ago, upon completing a hike in the Grand Canyon, I, too, stood at the rim, gazing at the colors below and recognizing the wonder of this place. I felt the canyon had moved me in the way religion moves fervent believers. At the time, I wasn’t sure why. Only after I began work on this book did I begin to understand all those things that, for me, make the canyon not just a beautiful place, but a sacred one. When I returned, I was awed again by the terraced buttes and mesas rising thousands of feet from the canyon floor and dividing the many side canyons. Early cartographers and geologists noticed simi- larities between these pinnacles and some of the greatest works done by human hands. Clarence Edward Dutton, who scouted the canyon for the U.S. Geological Survey in 1880 and 1881, referred to them as temples and named them after Eastern deities such as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. François Matthes, who drew a topographical map of the canyon in 1902, continued the tradition by naming Wotans Throne, Krishna Temple, and other landmarks. The temples not only inspire reverence, but also tell the grandest of stories. Half of Earth’s history is represented in the canyon’s rocks. The oldest and deepest rock layer, the Vishnu Formation, began forming 2 billion years ago, before aerobic life forms even existed. The different layers of sedimentary rock that piled up atop the Vishnu tell of landscapes that changed like dreams. They speak of mountainsCOPYRIGHTED that really did move before eroding MATERIAL into nothingness, of oceans that poured forth across the land before receding, of deserts, swamps, and rivers the size of the Mississippi—all where the canyon is now. The fossils in these layers illustrate the very evolution of life. Many of evolution’s latest products—more than 1,500 plant and 400 animal species—exist at the canyon today. If you include the upper reaches of the Kaibab Plateau (on the canyon’s North Rim), this small patch of Northern Arizona encompasses many diverse zones 004_541302-ch01.indd4_541302-ch01.indd 1 11/20/10/20/10 111:151:15 PPMM 2 Grand Canyon Overview 0 5 mi To , Jacob Lake, and Utah Campground Ranger Station NAVAJO N k Gas station Unpaved road e KAIBAB NATIONAL FOREST e 0 5 km e House Rock r r INDIAN C C Unpaved roads are Buffalo Ranch b Picnic area b a impassable when wet. a KKANABA N A B PLATEAUP L AT E A U K Kaibab Lodge RESERVATION n n A a MMt.t. 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Lipan r. Desert View D Grandview Point Phoenix SOUTH RIM Moran Grand Point Point View 18 Canyon View Canyon rt Information Plaza Village se Tusayan Ruins Tusayan De To CCOCONINOOCONINO PPLATEAULATEAU Grand Canyon and Museum Flagstaff ToTo 66 , KingmanKingman & PeachspringsPeachsprings To & & Grand Canyon Airport Camper Village KAIBAB NAT’L FOREST of biological life (associated plants and animals that fall into distinct bands or communities). In fact, climbing from the canyon floor to the top of the North Rim is like traveling from Mexico to Alaska in terms of the biological life you’ll see. The species come in every shape, size, and temperament, ranging from tiny ant lions on the canyon floor to 1,000-pound elk roaming the rims. And for every species, there is a story within the story. Take the Douglas fir, for example. Once part of a forest that covered both rims and much of the canyon, this tree has endured since the last ice age on shady, north-facing slopes beneath the South Rim—long after the sun-baked rim itself became inhospitably hot. As much as I like the stories, I also enjoy the unexplained myster- ies. The web of ecological cause and effect among the canyon’s species is too complicated for any mortal to untangle. It leaves endless ques- tions to ponder, such as, “Why does the agave bloom only once every 20-odd years?” Similarly, the canyon’s rocks withhold as much as they tell. 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DDesertesert ViewView D GGrandviewrandview PPointoint SSOUTHOUTH RRIMIM MMoranoran GGrandrand PPointoint PPointoint View CCanyonanyon ViewView CanyonCanyon rt 64 InformationInformation PPlazalaza VillageVillage se TTusayanusayan RRuinsuins De TToo COCONINO PLATEAU TTusayanusayan aandnd MMuseumuseum 64 180 GGrandrand CCanyonanyon FFlagstafflagstaff To , Kingman & Peachsprings TToo & & GGrandrand CCanyonanyon AirportAirport CCamperamper VVillageillage KKAIBABAIBAB NNAT’LAT’L FFORESTOREST Schist formed and the Tapeats Sandstone was deposited atop it—a gap in the geological record commonly referred to as The Great Unconformity. Other gaps—or unconformities, as they’re called— exist between other layers. And river gravels that would have explained how the canyon was cut have long since washed away. There’s a fascinating human history here, too. The more time I spend inside the canyon, the better I hope to understand the first people who dwelt there. A number of tribes have lived in or around the canyon, and the Navajo, Havasupai, Kaibab Paiute, Hopi, Zuni, and Hualapai tribes still inhabit the region. Before Europeans arrived, they awakened to the colors of the canyon, made their clothes from its plants and animals, smelled it, touched it, tasted it, and felt it underfoot. The Hopi still regard the canyon as their place of emer- gence and the source to which their dead return. Native Americans have left behind more than 4,000 archaeological sites and artifacts that may be as old as 10,000 years. 004_541302-ch01.indd4_541302-ch01.indd 3 11/20/10/20/10 111:151:15 PPMM 4 I also reflect on some of the first white people who came to this mystical place. The canyon moved them to take extraordinary, if not always productive, actions. I think about the prospectors who clam- bered through the canyon in search of precious minerals, and then wonder about the ones who stayed here even after their mines proved unprofitable.