1999
#133: BIG CANYON DAY HIKE
February 1, Thursday, 1973
Bill Breed came to me and asked if we could get down and see the Toroweap section in Big Canyon. I replied there was a trail I remember seeing from the last hike that would take us down without much trouble. So we left the Museum of Northern Arizona at about 9:40am Jan Jensen and Ben Foster, assistant at the Museum geology Department, came with us in the Museum vehicle. It was a clear calm day and the snow was starting to melt off.
We drove north on 89 and turned off on a dirt road near some large petrified logs about 3 to 4 miles past the Tuba City junction. There were still some patches of snow in the desert but nothing serious. There was no problem of getting out here since this was my third time in one month.
We arrived at the big fault at the head of Big Canyon and kept on driving up over the fault on the south side of south Big Canyon and around a large butte of Moenkopi Formation. We turned north from elevation BM 4982 and drove about a mile or slightly over. We came to a small tributary canyon that went into South Big Canyon and there we saw the trail. This tributary canyon runs approximately in a northeasterly direction for about a mile into south Big Canyon. We tromped on down into the little side canyon and hit the trail. Lots of work on rock walls were evident at the beginning plus trail work. Countless sheep have been over this trail. There was an inscription on the wall near the Kaibab –Toroweap contact of “Riggs, 1958 or 60” or both.
There are very large pot holes in the Toroweap sandstone just before getting into the first valley of south Big Canyon. They were several feet in diameter and must be quite deep and they were frozen solid. Bill skated around on the big one. The wide valley of south Big Canyon in this area has a couple of small buttes of Toroweap Sandstone sticking up out of the alluvium about 80 feet or more in height.
2000
1. Going down a northwest tributary canyon into south Big Canyon. 2-1-73.
2. Bill Breed skating around on a frozen pothole in Toroweap section in the tributary canyon to south Big Canyon. 2-1-73.
2001
We walked on down stream to where a small tributary canyon entered from the east. We were into the Coconino here. The entire Toroweap is a series of small sets of cross-bedded sandstone about 200 feet thick. A level line of erosion separates the Toroweap from the Coconino. Also the Coconino exhibits a much larger set of cross bedding and steeper dip of beds. The upper part of the Toroweap is distinguishable from the lower half of the Toroweap. The upper part is thin to medium bedded sandstone with very small sets of cross bedding and contorted layering. The lower part is not quite so crumbly and exhibits more of a cliff and somewhat thicker sets of cross bedding and massive layers of sandstone with a slight lime or calcareous content or matrix. It is generally much lighter in color to the buff color of the Coconino. The contact of the Toroweap and Kaibab is apparent by thick course low cross bedded sandstone of the Toroweap and sandy limestone layers of the Kaibab. All three formations form a shear cliff for the most part except where a talus slope covers the rock units.
3. Abandoned cutoff meander loop in Big Canyon, looking up canyon. Trail down north side at left. 2-1-73.
2002
4. Looking down south Big Canyon. 2-1-73.
Anyway, we turned around at this point and headed back up the canyon to the trail. A Navajo Indian was rolling rocks and hollering on the north rim as we left. We waved and went on. There was snow patches in the canyon up to 3 inches deep.
Back at the carryall, we drove over to Waterhole Canyon to show Ben the Little Colorado. I drove to the same place as Jan and I walked to a couple of weeks ago and the same place Ellen and I were at last Saturday. We had lunch at the spectacular drop off on the south side of Waterhole Canyon at the Little Colorado overlook. We left for Flagstaff about 3:00pm. Only walked 2 miles today and the high was 41 degrees.
