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Water brought to the desert because of Glen Canyon Dam Arizona

End of Echo Cliffs
From the Painted Desert I drove up through a cut in Echo Cliffs on my way to Page and Glen Canyon Dam.

Page Sandstone
On top of the Echo Cliffs lies another exposed layer of sandstone, a little different than below. Windblown sand was deposited about 170 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic creating large-scale cross-bedding (angled lines) seen on exposed sandstone.
Coal fired Navajo Generating Station & Navajo Mountain
Page is a place of power, electricity production that is. The dam generates an average of 451 megawatts compared to the generating station’s 2280 megawatts.

Glen Canyon Dam
Glen Canyon Dam, built between 1956 and 1966, stands 710 feet high, 25 feet wide at the top and 300 feet wide at the base. The dam provides water, electricity, flood control and recreation to millions of people.

Colorado River
The dam also radically changed the ecosystem of the Colorado River. Below the dam the water temperature dropped at least 20 degrees F causing the loss of some native fish. Without periodic flooding to wash away and redeposit sediments the entire riparian habitat changed, including the establishment of non-native plants.

Lake Powell
Glen Canyon Dam backed up the river 186 miles creating a reservoir called Lake Powell with about 100 major side canyons and five marinas. This flooding buried many Native American ruins and outstanding geologic features.


I continued my journey into the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

 

Arizona, Glen Canyon Dam, National Parks and Monuments , 11 Comments

Passing through geologic time at Painted Desert Arizona

From ancient ruins at Wupatki through geologic time at Painted Desert.
Old bridge over the Little Colorado River Cameron Arizona
Bridge over Little Colorado River
When you cross the Little Colorado River at Cameron on Highway 89 North you enter the western edge of the Painted Desert. SR 89 N Painted Desert Arizona
Enter The Painted Desert
During the Early Triassic, about 250 million years ago, the mass of all continents known as Pangaea began to drift apart between North America and Africa.
Painted Desert Arizona
The west coast of North America subsided into a flat plain and when sea levels rose these plains were covered with seawater. When the level dropped the exposed land was covered with a deposit of Kaibab limestone. SR 89 N Painted Desert Arizona
Because eastern North America had the highest mountainous land at the time, rivers flowed westward to the low coastal plains. The slow moving waters deposited mostly red mudstone and very fine-grained sandstone. Painted Desert Arizona
At the same time tidal flows deposited gray mudstone and tan limestone. All these layers represent the Moenkopi Formation. SR89 through Painted Desert Arizona
During the Middle Triassic deposition stopped and erosion began possibly due to climate change, a drop in sea level or a slight uplift of the Colorado Plateau region.
Painted Desert Arizona
In the late Triassic, about 215 million years ago, the region again subsided and stream deposits filled valleys and river cuts with sediment of very coarse-grained sandstone and pebble conglomerate known as the Shinarump Member of the Chinle Formation. Painted Desert Arizona
As rivers continued to dominate the landscape mudstones in shades of red, gray, brown, purple, tan, orange and pink were deposited as water flooded over the river banks.
Painted Desert Arizona
In addition, ash from exploding volcanoes fell on the Chinle river plains and eventually decomposed to clay with oxidized iron and manganese that give the rocks more vivid color.
SR89 north Painted Desert Arizona
Echo Cliffs on right
The Painted Desert is referred to by some Native Americans as a “land of sleeping rainbows.” Native American vendors along SR89 Painted Desert Arizona
Native Americans sell arts & crafts along the road
Much of the Painted Desert region is located within the Navajo Nation. The Navajo and the Hopi people have lived in the region for at least one thousand years, however the modern name for the desert comes from the Spaniards who named it “el Desierto Pintado” due to its brightly colored landscape.
Vermilion and Echo Cliffs SR89 N Arizona
Vermilion Cliffs in distance & Echo Cliffs on right
From the flat plain of the Painted Desert I continued up Echo Cliffs towards Page and the Glen Canyon Dam.
Arizona, National Parks and Monuments, Painted Desert , , 8 Comments

Ruins at Wupatki National Monument tell a story

The road to Wukoki Pueblo
Black cinders still blanket the ground for many miles surrounding Sunset Crater Volcano on the way to Wupatki National Monument.

Wukoki Pueblo
Yet only shortly after the volcano went silent around 1100AD, people settled into the area building pueblos on the rocks and cultivating corn, beans and squash below in the ash enriched soil.

View NE from Wukoki Pueblo
What a curious place to build a farming community with hot, dry summers and limited water. In this area only a few seeps and springs existed with the Little Colorado River 5-10 miles away.

Wukoki Pueblo
Yet these people shaped their lives to the land. Using the red sandstone outcroppings as a base masons mortared together natural stone blocks as bricks to shelter their families.

Metate, stones for grinding corn
It’s believed that the women built and maintained the home, made pottery, gathered wild plants and prepared food while the men tended the crops, hunted and wove textiles.

Wupatki Pueblo
An open community room may have served for public ceremonies.

Nalakihu and Citadel Pueblos
High walls on the north and west sides help protect from prevailing winds. Terraced rooms to the south and east bathed in winter sun. Flat roofs caught water.

Box Canyon Dwellings
Rooms were added as the family grew.

Lomaki Pueblo
Pueblos dotted the rocky landscape. By 1190AD, as many as 2,000 people lived within a days walk of Wupatki Pueblo, probably one of the largest pueblos in the area.

Lomaki Pueblo
Archeologists are undecided who the people of Wupatki were. Yet the Hopi tell many stories about the migration of their clans.
San Francisco Peaks from Citadel Pueblo
“…for us life is shrouded in mystery and the world defies explanation…humans do not need to know everything there is to be known. The human past, we feel, is a universal past. No one can claim it, and no one can ever know it completely.”
–Rina Swentzell, Pueblo Santa Clara
Wupatki National Monument definitely captured my heart and spirit. The energy of the ancestors surrounds. Pause and listen to the wisdom of the soul.  I floated along on the rest of today’s journey through the Painted Desert and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.
Arizona, National Parks and Monuments, Wupatki National Monument , 21 Comments

Lijit

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