Grand Falls - the lava source

This is Merriam Crater, the source of the lava that created Grand Falls. The lava flow rached 10 miles in length to flood the Little Colorado canyon and beyond.

Grand Falls geolgoy

This view of a dry Grand Falls is looking back upstream of the original river flow. The falls in the foreground show the affects of water erosion while the background shows the canyon filled with lava and the original canyon rim capped with several feet of lava which flowed from the right, into the canyon, then filled it and continued to flow to the left as well as filling the canyon downstream.

Grand Falls

Grand Falls at a dry time. Grand Falls can be found northeast of Flagstaff Arizona. It is the result of a lava flow which dammed the Little Colorado River. The river canyon eventually filled with water and overflowed the rim and the water found its way around the lava flow, running roughly northward, then westward around the flow and then back to the south where it found the orignal canyon again at this spot, creating a water fall in the process. It has slowly eroded away the wall. You can see large chunks of the wall laying both on the shelf right of center and in the pool at the base of the falls at the left edge of the frame. When Grand Falls runs, it is usually a brown torrent.

Vulcans Throne

The B&W view of Vulcans Throne was taken a few tenths of a mile down the Lava Falls trail.

Vulcans Throne B&W

This is a Black & White version of the previous image, recropped a little and using a blue filter in Picasa which provided the best contrast between Vulcans Throne and the background South Rim hills.

Vulcans Throne

As we approached Toroweap along the dirt road, we were treated to this view of Vulcans Throne, a volcano on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with the South Rim of the Canyon beyond it.

Fellow Toroweap visitor

Actually, this guy was a resident. He was slithering across the dirt road not far from the Ranger Station on the road out to Toroweap. After stopping the car about 10 feet away from him, I climbed out of the car and took this photo, then tossed small rocks in his direction to get him to move off the road, which he did shortly. No need to run him over or anything like that - we were visiting his home, he wasn't disturbing ours....

Last light on Toroweap Point

As we pulled into the campground, the sun was setting on the area and lit the top of Toroweap Point seen here.

Vulcans Throne

One of the youngest volcanoes near Toroweap Point is Vulcans Throne seen here from Toroweap Overlook. The Canyon is to the left and just out of the frame is Lava Falls seen in earlier images.

Lava Falls Rapids

Here is a closeup of Lava Falls rapids from Toroweap Overlook. If you look closely, you might be able to make out a river running raft coming out of the whitewater. It was really neat to watch the rafters as they were about a mile downstream and 3,000 feet down, so the sounds were delayed about 7 or 8 seconds. I could hear the motor ramp up as the guide throttled it up to control his path through the rapids, then shortly after the raft plunged through the mayhem, I could faintly here the rafters yelling with excitement.

Eroded Cinder Cone

This is a closeup of the eroded cinder cone on the south rim of the Grand Canyon as seen from Toroweap Overlook. The side canyon it is being eroded by is called Prospect Canyon.

Lava Falls from Toroweap

The view from Toroweap Overlook also includes this view of Lava Falls rapids on the Colorado below (the whitewater visible on the river). This area was the scene of considerable volcanic activity in the past as evidenced by the darker lava flows on the northern flank of the Canyon. There are a number of cinder cones on both flanks of the Canyon here including the prominant Vulcans Throne which was the source of the most prominant lava flow visible on the northern (right) Canyon wall. Vulcans Throne is just outside of the frame to the right.

Over the cliff - by Hugo First...

Watch that first step - it's a doozy. Yes, that's 3,000 feet straight down. The Colorado River is at the lower left edge of the frame. I wrapped the wrist strap around my wrist and held the camera over the threshold to get this picture while I stayed more than a foot back from the precipice. I wasn't about to lean out there myself. Of course, as you can sort of see, I was standing on a rock outcrop which is battling gravity to stay in place there and it has cracks in it. Eventually it will join the debris in the talus on the edge of the river, but happily it didn't do that in the 3 minutes I was standing on it. This is one the of rare places where it is a straight vertical cliff all the way down - much of the canyon has terraced walls with lots of 400 foot falls down to the river instead of one long 3,000 foot fall as there is here (see the last shot which shows the south canyon walls, for example).

Toroweap downstream

This is the view downstream from Toroweap Overlook. The canyon walls are about 3,000 feet straight down to the talus above the Colorado river visible below - and there are no handrails like you find at the most popular Grand Canyon viewpoints. Toroweap is on the north rim with this view to the west-southwest, more or less. You can see a cinder cone partly eroded into Prospect Canyon on the south rim of the Canyon near the top center. This image was taken with my old Fuji Finepix 2650 at the end of May, 2003.

Toroweap Thunderstorm

This image is from a trip to Torroweap Overlook about 4 years ago. A thunderstorm approaches from the east from near the campground not far from Toroweap Point and Toroweap Overlook. I highly recommend the area despite a 60 mile drive on a dirt road. Only the last few miles need some extra ground clearance of a 4WD or pickup. This image was taken with my old Fuji Finepix 2650.

Birds eye view

A female House Finch watches the photographer as she sits on a tree branch in the cactus garden on the UofA mall. Thi simage was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

Curved Billed Thrasher

This Curved Billed Thrasher sits attop a Wildcat statue next to the cactus garden on the University of Arizona Campus. This image was made at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/320 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 800.

New Friends

Richard has fun with Tuugii as I take their picture near the end of last Thursday's Sidewinders game. I'm sure we'll find lots of other new things to expose our young friend to as he gets used to living in Tucson and the U.S. I can't imagine what it must be like to move to such a different place from where he was brought up in Mongolia.

"Chimping" at the bit....

Tuugii is busy "chimping" - that is, looking at the latest images he's taken on his LCD screen on his camera during the Sidewinders game last Thursday.

The $6 t-shirt

Tuugii displays the t-shirt he grabbed out of the air that cost him the $6 he spent on the ticket to the ballgame. Several times during the game, a truck was driven around and t-shirts were tossed to the crowd. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600.

Movin' on up

Sidewinder Center Fielder Jeff Salazar (#15) watches Randy Choate pitch with a runner at second base. Salazar was called up to the parent club, the Arizona Diamondbacks after the game, playing in Cincinnati the following day. This image was taken at 92mm focal length with an exposure fo 1/250 seconds at f/4, ISO 800.

The pitch

In the third inning, we moved behind the plate and although the protective netting provides some distraction, it is a great angle for watching pitches. It also gives you a great idea of just how fast a pitched ball arrives at the plate and gives you an appreciation for what the batters do in being able to hit baseballs. This iamge was taken at 133mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 800.

Contact!

Sidewinder Jamie D'Antona makes contact during a 5 run rally in the 4th inning that put the 'Winders into a lead they would not relinquish. He later scored. This image was taken at 119mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/4, ISO 800.

Happy Birthday Hillary!

My friend Richard and I took our new friend Tuugii from Mongolia to his first baseball game. We went to Thursday nights Tucson Sidewinders game. At one point during the game, the PA announcer mentioned happy birthdays which included one for my friend Hillary who works on Kitt Peak and is (believe it or not) even more of a basebull nut that I am! So, Happy Birthday Hillary! This image was taken late in the game from near the Sidewinder Bullpen beyond the left field fence and if you know Hillary, you can find her in the sparcely occupied seats. This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 1600.

The last shot

After it seemed that Wednesday nights July 4 fireworks display was over, I started a time exposure to get the Tucson skyline. During the exposure, this lone shot went off. This image was taken at 70mm focal length with an exposure of 30 seconds at f/14, ISO 100.