ECHOES OF AN ANCIENT LAND

ALMOST A MILE BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE COLORADO PLATEAU THE ROCK FORMATION LIES ECHOES OF AN ANCIENT LAND

Exposed; dense, convoluted, polished. Touch it and you are transported to a time before life existed on Earth. About 2.2 billion years ago. A number almost impossible to comprehend. From the time the rock composing the Vishnu schist was first laid down by an ancient sea, those bil-lions of years have seen it cast up into mountain ranges as high as the Rocky Mountains, ground down again through the forces of time and erosion, covered repeatedly by the sediments of long-ago oceans, compressed, condensed, and worried to an almost jewellike hard-ness, and finally revealed by the action of the Colo-rado River carving its channel through the vast layered deposits of the Colorado Plateau. As it cuts through the plateau country, the Colo-rado bares not only some of the oldest exposed rock on the planet but the soul of a land. The river and its tributaries reach to every corner of the Colorado Plateau, cours-ing through its vast open landscape, sometimes gently beguil-ing, sometimes raging, revealing its innermost secrets one grain of sand at a time.

Wind, water, change, and inevitability mark this land. Seeming permanence yields before the forces of time and the elements. Multicolored silts left by great inland seas erode, forming kaleidoscopic panoramas. Precipitous canyon walls crowd charging watercourses that slice ever deeper channels into the plateau's sandstone strata. Monolithic landforms carved by windswept sands defy, temporarily, the onslaught of nature's endless regeneration.

Onto this land clings, tenuously by geologic time but with great age and dignity by human standards, evidence of past lives: the ancestral homes of the plateau's first residents, Indian peoples whose dwellings seem to have sprung from the earth, more organic than construct. Mysterious vanished tribes whose spirits seem to linger in the remote fastness. Enduring. Timeless.

Join us as we celebrate the beauty of Arizona's Colorado Plateau country from the depths of the Grand Canyon to the high-desert mesas. Follow, as the wind swirls through the canyons, reverberating through time, returning again and again with Echoes of an Ancient Land.

A PORTFOLIO

WIND, WATER, CHANGE, AND INEVITABILITY MARK THIS LAND.

Preceding Panel, Page 18: Vishnu schist, Colorado River Mile 83, Grand Canyon National Park. GARY LADD Preceding Panel, Page 19: Buckskin Gulch, Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area. STEVE BRUNO Above: Sandstone ridges and reflection, Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness. GEORGE STOCKING Right: Arches drawn in the sand by windblown grasses along the Arizona-Utah border. GARY LADD Opposite Page: Ribbed and weathered sandstone near Coyote Buttes in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. ROBERT MCDONALD

MONOLITHIC LANDFORMS CARVED BY WINDSWEPT SANDS DEFY, TEMPORARILY, THE ONSLAUGHT OF NATURE'S ENDLESS REGENERATION.

MULTICOLORED SILTS DEPOSITED BY GREAT INLAND SEAS ERODE, FORMING KALEIDOSCOPIC PANORAMAS.

MYSTERIOUS VANISHED TRIBES WHOSE SPIRITS SEEM TO LINGER IN THE REMOTE FASTNESS.

THE RIVER AND ITS TRIBUTARIES REACH TO EVERY CORNER OF THE COLORADO PLATEAU, SOMETIMES GENTLY BEGUILING, SOMETIMES RAGING.

PRECIPITOUS CANYON WALLS CROWD CHARGING WATERCOURSES THAT SLICE EVER DEEPER CHANNELS INTO THE PLATEAU'S SANDSTONE STRATA.

THE COLORADO RIVER BARES NOT ONLY SOME OF THE OLDEST EXPOSED ROCK ON THE PLANET BUT THE SOUL OF A LAND.