Deer Hunting in Kaibab

"I Travel the Skyways of the Grand Canyon"

(Continued from Page 13) Hours over Grand Canyon have impressed the fact on me that I am less than an atom in this general scheme of things entire.

The reaction of the different types of people who fly Grand Canyon is quite interesting. Strange as it may seem, few people show signs of fear yet ninetyfive per cent of those who fly from Grand Canyon airports are on their first air voyage and eighty-five per cent of the passengers are women. Small children usually get sleepy as soon as they get over the Canyon and people past the age of fifty see more detail, show more appreciation, and are more eager to make a second flight than younger people.

Flying from one end of the Canyon to the other gives one an idea of the natural forces continuously working beneath the earth's crust. As the plane passes along between the rims at the east end of the Canyon, it is easy to see that some tremendous force from down deep in the earth has pushed up the seven layers of sedimentary rock and several hundred feet of Algonkian formation, which altogether are more than a mile thick at this point, and bent them into a mound fifty miles in width, forming the Kaibab Plateau, which is commonly known as the Buckskin Mountains. These same strata bend down on the east and west sides of this plateau and disappear under the Painted Desert to the east and the Cataract Plains to the west. Much farther west in the Toroweep country and along the north edge of the Hualapai Indian Reservation recent small volcanos have exploded in the Canyon. Here cinder cones, one in particular known as Vulcan's Throne, blew out so close to the Canyon rim that the cinders are now washed down the sides of the cone by rain and tumble into the river hundreds of feet below.

In this vicinity it appears that not so long ago lava flows, from what are now known as the Uinkaret Mountains, temporarily dammed the Colorado River. In one place in the river, in its effort to cut its channel, has washed away one side of the chimney of a small volcano, leaving the other concave side of the chimney exposed. Here one can plainly see how molten lava has been shot through this huge fire plug and one can realize with what force the lava, gas, and fumes emerged.

Huge faults which split the earth's crust are quite visible in five different places on this flight. Thousands of tributary canyons rise on both the north and south rims and extend in knife-like cuts to the river. No one can realize how insignificant are the greatest engineering feats of man until he has witnessed the forces of Nature that have been active in Grand Canyon and these can be most appreciated when viewed from above for they appear to be spread out like a giant relief map.

Tourists often ask these questions: "Where is the Grand Canyon?" "Where does it start?" "Where does it end, and why?"

To answer such questions in brief: Grand Canyon is entirely in Arizona. Then assume you take a plane from either the North Rim or South Rim airports of Grand Canyon and fly in an easterly direction to the edge of the Painted Desert where the Little Colorado River merges with the Colorado River. That is where Grand Canyon begins.

Over 500 miles of box canyon may be found along the course of the Colorado River but the beginning of Grand Canyon is at the junction of the Little Colorado and the Colorado rivers. Here, should the plane be headed in a general southwesterly direction and follow the river 217 miles to a point where the river suddenly emerges through the Hual-apai Cliffs (4,500 feet high) into Mead Lake, one would have arrived at the west end of Grand Canyon. Why the river followed such an irregular course, why it cut through mountains instead of going around them, and why it did everything contrary to Nature, is a question difficult to answer. However, geologists tell us that when the river began its work, it followed a broad, low river valley similar to the Mississippi Valley. While the river was meandering through this broad low valley, the entire country underneath its course began to rise very slowly.. so slowly, in fact, that the river changed its course very little. This battle between the river and the lifting forces within the earth or the rising of that section of the earth's crust, went on for millions of years. Old Man Nature pushed the country up from a low plain to an average elevation of approximately 7,000 feet and Old Man River worked as rapidly as possible cut. ting through the rock to preserve its channel. The battle still goes on with the Colorado carrying a million tons of silt and sand past a given point every twentyfour hours. In two hours the plane passes over the route of this great battlefield and one can plainly see how the huge strata of rock have been lifted up from the plains, how frost, wind, and rain have broken down the sides of the cliffs and the streams of small canyons have carried the broken particles of rock to the river and then it is a bit easier to realize how the river, with its tremendous load of grinding material, has held its course to the sèa. Viewed from above, one gets a general conception of the Why of Grand Canyon which makes all the work of man look simple. Before flying over Grand Canyon became popular, it was common belief that there were violent air currents in and above the Canyon which would make flying impractical if not impossible. The fact is quite the contrary. Flying conditions are ideal over, and even in Grand Canyon. On either rim there are large coniferous forests. From these forests there is tremendous evaporation, especially during the summer months, and the air above them is ordinarily cooler than it is over open country. Air flows like water and naturally, heavy, moist air drains into places of lower elevation. There is no drainage ditch on the face of the earth for either air or water like Grand Canyon; therefore, the heavy air from the forests flows along until it reaches the canyon rim, then tumbles down over the limestone rimrock like water over a falls. As it moves down the various walls and slopes of the Canyon, it becomes warmer, and when it reaches the plateau and the lower gorge, it has been relieved of its moisture content; consequently, it becomes lighter and drier as it travels, so by the time it reaches the middle of the Canyon it is so light and warm that it begins to ascend, thus forming an updraught over the lower gorge. This updraught seems to continue to an approximate elevation of 15,000 feet. An ordinary plane flying on a still day over Grand Canyon will rise several hundred feet in a few miles on this updraught. Because of the warm air rising out of the Canyon, the atmosphere has a tendency to be unusually smooth. On blustery days, the air over the forest may be bumpy but it is an exceptionally rough day when the air over Grand Canyon isn't smooth.

One never tires of flying over the Canyon. This seemed to be true even of a little burro colt who lived at the Grand Canyon South Rim airport some years ago. Johnny, the young burro, was first taken up on test flights and, much to the surprise of the personnel, became quite an ardent sailor. If the ship door was left open while the ship was on the ground, Johnny would hop in and wait for the motors to start. It was usually only by rough persuasion that the little fellow could be taken out. Many tourists requested that he be allowed to go with them on the flight and his flights became so numerous that the pilots kept a log book of Johnny's flying time. His most important and last trip, after 72 hours in the air, was with a noted Italian flying ace of the World War and an