Grand Perspective: Photo Essay, Grand Canyon

Looking across to the North Rim at hikers on the South Kaibab. The Zoraster pink granite (gniess) and the black Vishnu schist as backdrop beneath the pancaked layers of Tapeats sandstone. The bottom layers of igneous/metamorphic rock are much more impervious to river cutting and rain/ice/wind erosion then the upper sedimentary layers above the sweep of the Tonto Plateau

"It's so massive! How can you capture it all in a photo?" Nearly every Grand Canyon client I have taken to the bottom has exclaimed this as we drop through layers of stacked time - venturing back into the earth's twilight with stone at the river depth nearly 2 billion years old...

Perspective is always a curious thing. Camera lenses all "see" a bit differently. Our eyes take in somewhat equivalent to a 50mm... A 300mm will compress things in the distance and often bring them closer then they might actually appear to the eye in person. A 14mm, approaching a fish-eye lens, will grab close to 180 degrees of perspective in one frame... Even with these tricks the span and depth are difficult to fathom. A bit more appreciation comes when a trail from rim to river is traversed, and with head moving like an owl's to experience it all.

images ©Bennett Barthelemy October 2016

Backpackers just beneath the Tapeats Sandstone layer, about 2/3 of the way to the bottom

Heading into the "basement"

Always fun to send a postcard from Phantom Ranch at the Bottom. They come up by mule - the Grand Canyon is the last place in the US that sends mail out that way, in the Park and from Havasupai

When the Spanish Conquistadors were taken to the rim by Hopi guides they thought they could step across the river, not realizing it was often over 400 feet across- thus they made a 250 mile detour on their route north.

Rafters from Montana - another way to see/experience the Canyon. This crew of 16 packed 2700 cans of beer for the journey, about 10 per day. John Wesley Powell (name of raft) was one of the first to float this section of the Colorado River and with just one arm they tied him into the wooden raft for "safety" in the rapids.

It is rare to get rain and cloud but when it happens it really allows for seeing the myriad canyons - adding depth and perspective that is difficult to see without the known height of buildings and trees

Sunset light is another great way to get a greater sense of the vastness as certain features stacked along the horizon catch the light.