Photo Quiz #5

Ok, this Photo Quiz is going to be a little different than previous quizzes. For starters, there are no people to identify in this picture. I'm not going to have you guess when this picture was taken. I'm not sure myself. I know this will be a little harder, but this is truly a "Tales from the Trail"* quiz.

For fabulous prize** name the canyon shown (I'll start you out with a softie).

For bonus prize*** name the shelf in the lower third of the photo. Hint: just kidding. I'm not going to give you a hint!

Extra special super duper bonus prize****Name the nine prominent layers of rock in the canyon. I know there are more but these nine are prominent and persistant throughout the canyon.

Wow! A post with 4 (four) astericks (*)! Wow!

*'Trails' as in foot paths, blisters, dust, heat, and wind, and not in a metaphysical sense as is implied in this blog's title.

**Fabulous prize - an original, actual, and certified (by me) rock (small) from the bottom of the mystery canyon. I know it would mean more if it was solid gold, but it's not. It's not even a tiny bit gold.

***Bonus prize - the bonus prize from Photo Quiz #4 (see the post for the picture).

****A pack of twelve cardboard novelty glasses that are so lame I can't give them away at the office.

Winner Notification!!!!

Jared is the big winner this week, and as he said in his response, he "nailed this one." The canyon is indeed the Grand Canyon (was there any doubt?) and it is a view looking across Surprise Valley toward the east. That is the Colorado River visible and Thunder River and Tapeats Creek* come in from the left just at the edge of Surprise Valley. He also called me on the imprecise bonus prize question. I meant it to mean Surprise Valley, but looking at the question again, I can also follow his reasoning that it could mean the esplanade (lower left foreground) but since he covered both in his answer, I give it to him.

He is also right on the formations. Of course there is much more to it than I asked but the major nine layers are Kaibab limestone, Toroweap sandstone, Coconino sandstone, Hermit shale, the Supai Group, Redwall limestone (which is really gray, but stained red by the Supai group above it), Mauve limestone, Bright Angel shale, and Tapeats sandstone. A handy way to remember this and impress your friends is to use this little saying: Know The Canyon History, See Rocks Made By Time, where the first letter of each word matches the first letter of each formation. Neat, huh?

I have a lot of memories of this part of the canyon that may become the subject of a future post(s). Just last night a former Varsity Scout that I took into Thunder River with a bunch of his buddies called. He is now a scoutmaster and he mentioned about how much he remembered our trip and is in the planning stages of taking his own scouts down this spring.

*Thunder River is probably one of the shortest (and steepest) rivers in world. From the spring to Tapeats Creek is probably a half a mile and it drops over 1000 feet!