Marble Canyon is the 61 mile stretch of the Colorado River from Lees Ferry to the confluence with the Little Colorado River. It is the beginning of present-day Grand Canyon National Park.
Marble canyon is not composed of Marble, but sandstones and limestones of the Supai and Kaibab formations. The name was given to the canyon by the early explorer and Civil War veteran, Major John Wesley Powell, August 9, 1869:
“We have cut through the sandstone and limestones met in the upper part of the canyon, and through one great bed of marble a thousand feet in thickness…. As this great bed forms a distinctive of the canyon, we call it Marble Canyon.”
On January 20, 1969, President Lyndon Johnson created Marble Canyon National Monument, in response to the Bureau of Reclamation's proposal to build 2 dams in the canyon, at river miles 32.8 and 39.4 (Less Ferry is river mile 0). By making it a National Monument, it was protected from having any dams built within its boundaries.
Having just been in Marble Canyon which, thanks to the efforts of the National Park Service and the Navajo Nation, remains pristine wilderness, it's almost impossible to imagine today that flooding the canyon was only 40 years ago a real and imminent threat.
Commissioner Floyd Dominy’s proposal in the early 1950s met substantial opposition, notably from the Sierra Club, and was finally abandoned in 1968. On January 3, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Grand Canyon Enlargement Act, which abolished the canyon as a National Monument and incorporated it into Grand Canyon National Park.
Today, remnants of a cableway, built to service the proposed construction, are apparent near the lower dam site in Redwall cavern, as are holes in the canyon wall drilled by engineers at the proposed dam site. What also remains is a mule trail from the rim down Shinumo Wash (oherwise known as 29 mile canyon) to the top of the Redwall above Redwall Cavern. This trail would have become a road linking the dam to Highway 89 if the project had gone ahead. Today much of the trail is washed out and is evidently not used that much by day hikers.
29 Mile Canyon 29 Mile is a "side canyon" to the Grand Canyon and is fed by the Shinumo Wash. Located on the Navajo Reservation via dirt roads, this hidden gem sees few visitors.
Last week I hiked from Redwall Cavern to twenty-nine mile rapids and silver grotto 'beach', then up Shinumo Wash to the South rim on the Navajo reservation. It's a ~7 mile, ~2500ft climb hike over large boulders, winding switchbacks, high sandstone ledges. In short, it's an awesome trail. Here's a rough sketch of the route and some of the locations of photos below:
Anyway, enough writing. Here are some photos from my trip. Believe me, these photos do not do it justice! Click on them for larger versions.
Looking upstream from river mile 31 (near proposed upper dam site)
At South Canyon looking downstream, which bends sharply to the left
Vasey's Paradise groundwater-fed waterfall, home to a rare snail
Looking towards Redwall cavern
Down at the river in Silver Grotto to cool my feet
View up 29 mile canyon
View up Shinumo Wash
Path repairs near the rim
View from near the rim
