The Grand Canyon in One Day

The Grand Canyon: "the place every American should see." — President Theodore Roosevelt

Yesterday we spent the whole day at the south rim of Grand Canyon National Park. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, the last time I was at the Grand Canyon was 15 years ago but that time we only explored the east side of the south rim. I don’t remember whether we explored the west side of the south rim or not when I came here when I was 9, but in any case, we went al the way west to Hermit’s Rest and all the way east to Desert View this visit. We walked the rim trail as often as we could and took the shuttle bus when we didn’t.

Information on the Grand Canyon is all over the Internet and in many publications already so I won’t give an in-depth geologic history lesson here—just some basic facts.

The Grand Canyon cuts down into the Colorado Plateau that stretches north to Utah, northeast to Colorado, and east to New Mexico. At the south rim, the elevation is 7,000 feet. The Canyon spans almost 2 billion years of time from the basement rocks of the Vishnu Schist to the 270 million year old Kaibab Limestone at the top. Below the Kaibab Limestone is the same Coconino Sandstone and Hermit Shale exposed in the Sedona rocks.

According to the National Park Service pamphlet that is handed out at the entrance, “The Grand Canyon reveals a beautiful sequence of rock layers that serve as windows into time.” The Canyon was carved by the Colorado River 5 or 6 million years ago and is now about a mile deep. Its width varies from 8 miles to 18 miles wide and extends about 280 river miles long. As the river cuts down, the canyon deepens. Tributaries erode into the canyon’s sides and increase its width. Erosion carves faster into the softer rock layers like the shales and undermine the harder layers like the sandstones, creating cliffs, slopes, buttes, and pinnacles.

The views along the rim are inspiring and beautiful. Looking across the Canyon gives you such a feeling of power and beauty at the same time. What nature can create, with the dazzing erosional forms, rock colors, and geologic time is just awesome. Truly a place that every American, every person, should see.

Sedona's Vortexes

Soon we'll be taking our summer vacation to Sedona, AZ with side trips to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. I've never been to Sedona before and have only driven through Flagstaff on the way to California. I have been to the Grand Canyon, though, once when I was about 9 years old on a trip from California to Oklahoma with my mom's parents, and again when I was 28 and pregnant with my first child. I had such morning (daytime) sickness during that trip that I don't remember much except that I just wanted to stay in the car and be miserable. So this time, there is nothing to prevent me from enjoying the beauty around me and I look forward to seeing "That Big Hole in the Ground" as my grandpa, Pop, called it.

So I've been doing a bit of research online and have found many websites that describe Sedona and the Red Rocks the area is known for. I've learned that Sedona is known not only for it's geological beauty, but also for it's "Vortexes." The vortexes in Sedona are swirling centers of subtle energy coming out from the surface of the earth. It seems that visitors to certain areas around Sedona have experienced strong feelings such as an increase in intuition to a sense of being at home. People who claim that they are more sensitive to energy have reported that they are moved spontaneously to emotion or they feel unusually healthy and vibrant when in the presence of a vortex. Juniper trees are especially suseptable to the power of vortexes (photo, below left). Their trunks twist because of the energy (according to Sedona's spiritual leaders; I imagine botanists have another explanation).

According to the website lovesedona.com:

"There are four main energy vortexes in Sedona. The subtle energy that exists at these locations interacts with who a person is inside. The energy resonates with and strengthens the Inner Being of each person that comes within about a quarter to a half mile of it. This resonance happens because the vortex energy is very similar to the subtle energy operating in the energy centers inside each person. If you are at all a sensitive person, it is easy to feel the energy at these vortexes."

Now, these feelings may just be due to being in the presence of beautiful rock formations and as a geologist, I sure do love to be among beautiful rocks. But increased energy? Spirituality? Healing? I'll believe it if it happens to me!

So is there anything scientific to this perceived power? Some people said that it is the iron in the rocks that has not only colored them red, but has created magnetism that provides the power of the vortexes. But geological study has demonstrated that magnetism is not the source of the phenomenon that people report.

I guess the only way I'll find out is to go stand on one of these four vortexes or walk a trail leading to an energy spot and see what happens. At the very least (and what I'd expect) I'd find myself in a beautiful spot enjoying the views around me. And I guess that is spiritual in itself.