When the John Wesley Powell expedition set sail on the Green River in 1869 they had no idea of where they were headed or what they would experience. The famous quote was one of the greatest of all prognostications ever!
–We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.–
As a group leader that has rafted The Grand Canyon some half a dozen times, hiked to the river and back and covered both rims in many different ways, the power of this statement grows stronger as the years go by. The vastness of this area seems to be larger and the experience bigger no matter where or when the all too brief visits occur. The heart stopping sensation has never diminished upon first glance. If anything it increases!
If you are on the river today the canyons appear above the river line just as the Powell expedition first saw them. The dams have changed the rivers and the habitat thus now very different but the solitude, trepidation and sense of adventure remain. Powell himself had a great sense of the future and his predictions in a lot of cases have become prophetic, however a couple of things that he could not foresee have become reality. First, the river he would reach at the confluence was then called The Grand as it flowed through the last to be mapped area of United States known as The Grand Canyon. Up until then it was identified as unknown. For political reasons the name would later be changed to the Colorado river. Secondly. the furthest thing they could have imagined is that when they reached the confluence they would be in the heart of what is now Canyonlands National Park. The Green and the Colorado rivers now divide one of its three units know as Island In The Sky.
Just over 20 miles from the Utah town of Moab the Island in the sky mesa rests on sheer sandstone cliffs over 1,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. Hiking trails and four-wheel-drive roads access back-country areas. This late winter- early spring we spent a few days exploring and photographing some 20+ miles along one of the great back road trails. The White Rim Road, an area first used for mining and a road system NOT for the inexperienced or ill-equipped. Permits required!
In the featured image above near Island In The Sky the vastness of this wilderness area jumps into view with a rush. The White Rim Road can be seen from this great height and distance as a narrow strip. Slowly driving up the plateau by vehicle the depth and scale is hidden until you reach one of the rims. Viewed here at Dead Horse Point state park the shadows and river give the image that much needed depth and scale. This is one of 23 exposures made in the very few moments of unobstructed light before actual sunset.
Canon 5DsR, Canon 24-70 2.8 MKll, Singh-Ray LB Warming Polarizer and 3 stop ND Grad, Acratech Leveling Base and Ultimate Ballhead. Gitzo Tripod
