Colorado River

Lava Falls
* The following pages contain imagery from the 2006 Colorado River and Trail Expeditions (CRATE) Grand Canyon National Park 9-day natural history expedition down the Colorado River. Concurrent with this trip were two MCC Summer I courses: GLG 251MC Field Geology of the Grand Canyon (Leighty) and BIO 149AF Field Biology of the Grand Canyon (Hill/Wilson).
* If anyone has field trip imagery that they'd like to post here, email Bob Leighty.
* Images and videos are by author noted in the caption. All imagery is copyrighted and cannot be used for any commercial purposes without permission.
* Some text (usually in bold) will be hyperlinked for further clarification of various terms and concepts.
* Images have been significantly reduced in size from the originals. Images are typically 1024 pixels in long dimension. Click on the images to enlarge.
* Numerical dates for geologic time are mostly taken from the International Commission on Stratigraphy.

* The rating of river rapids are on the 1-10 scale for western big-river waters. River discharge varied between 7,000-12,000 cfs for all but the last three days of the trip (9,000-18,000 cfs). The ratings are subjective and vary depending upon a number of conditions. In my descriptions, the rapid ratings are based on the medium cfs flow (9,000-16,000) estimates of Stevens (1983).
* A number of resources were used in the following pages, including:
Geologic Map of the Eastern Part of the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona (Billingsley and others, 1996)
Geologic Log of the Colorado River from Lees Ferry to Temple Bar, Lake Mead, Arizona (Billingsley and Elston, 198?)
Trails Illustrated Grand Canyon National Park topographic map, National Geographic Maps, xxxx.

Guidebook to the Colorado River, Part 2: Phantom Ranch in Grand Canyon National Park to Lake Mead, Arizona-Nevada (Hamblin and Rigby, 1982)

Colorado River Briefs for a Trip through the Grand Canyon (Lindemann, 2003)

Guide to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon: Lees Ferry to South Cove (Martin and Whitis, 2004)
Colorado River Guidebook: Lees Ferry to Phanton Ranch (Pewe, 1974)
River Runners' Guide to the Canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers (Simmons and Gaskill, 1969)
The Colorado River in Grand Canyon: A Guide (Stevens, 1983)