Nankoweap to Bright Angel: A Grand Canyon Crossing (In-Person & Live-Streamed LAM Talk)
Tue, Sep 22, 20267:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Los Alamos Nature Center Planetarium or Zoom
2600 Canyon Rd , Los Alamos , NM 87544
Admission: Free
The Grand Canyon park is much larger than the visitor center and main hiking corridor and encompasses some of the most extraordinary wilderness and solitude that one can find anywhere in the West. Bill Carey, Mike Fugate and Mary Frances
Dorn will describe a wonderfully challenging and interesting 10-day trip in April 2025. Their route started on the North Rim in the southeastern part of the Grand Canyon, where the usual layer cake geology is disrupted by a series of faults and an enormous thickness of colorful sedimentary pre-Cambrian rocks that can only be seen in this part of the Grand Canyon. Their route touched the Colorado river only once before they exit via the South Rim visitor area, as it crosses a series of massive north-side canyons that dissect the imposing architectural features of the Grand Canyon. Each crossing exposes an imposing, high saddle, where the route is sometimes evident and otherwise hidden amongst a confusing series of side drainages and boulder-filled alleyways. In the midst of the terrain, the group traveled among magnificent rock monuments with mystical names, like Wotan’s Throne, Jupiter‘s Temple and Krishna’s Shrine. Please join us for a description of the joys and challenges of backpacking through this magnificent desert landscape.
About the presenter:
Bill Carey grew up in the farmlands of Central Illinois having no knowledge or experience with mountains or the great outdoors. Through a career geology, he has come to be an avid hiker both on foot and on ski. With his friends, Mike Fugate and Mary Francis, he has spent many nights below the Grand Canyon rim absorbing the vision of the great US Geological Survey geologist of the 19th century, Charles Dutton: “The Grand Cañon of the Colorado is a great innovation in modern ideas of scenery, and in our conceptions of the grandeur, beauty, and power of nature. As with all great innovations it is not to be comprehended in a day or a week, nor even in a month. It must be dwelt upon and studied, and the study must comprise the slow acquisition of the meaning and spirit of that marvelous scenery which characterizes the Plateau Country, and of which the great chasm is the superlative manifestation.”
Admission: Free
