Tag: Coconino County

View of Oak Creek Canyon from the edge of the Mogollon Rim. It’s a long way down.

This vista is just a few miles away from my summer digs in Flagstaff. I think it will become a regular spot to drink my morning coffee and grow contemplative.

I am adapting well to my new setting. I’m even adjusting to the altitude. My home in Portsmouth, Virginia is a whopping eight feet (2.5 m) above sea level. We never lack for useful things like oxygen or atmospheric pressure there. Now, here in Flagstaff, I am at almost 7,000 feet (2,100 m). At the end of my first week I’m no longer gasping as I climb the stairs to the apartment, but I do take it slowly. I sometimes find myself mentally adding elevation and counting  7,001 feet… 7,002 feet… 7,003 feet… with each step up.

For the Geologically Inclined: The strata revealed on the western wall of the canyon in this photo are like old friends from visits to the Grand Canyon, about 100 miles to the north. At top are the marine sediments that make up the Kaibab Formation. Below are the grayish Toroweap Formation and the golden Coconino Sandstones, compressed from ancient dunes. The reddish layer is the only stratum seen in the escarpment in Oak Creek that does not occur in the Grand Canyon – the Schnebley Hill Formation, famous for the red-rock features of nearby Sedona. At the bottom of the canyon is the Hermit Formation, clad at this elevation with a forest of ponderosa pines. A fault runs through the course of Oak Creek, and slippage has left the eastern wall of the canyon as much as 1,000 feet lower than the western side. 

View of Oak Creek Canyon from the edge of the Mogollon Rim. It’s a long way down.

This vista is just a few miles away from my summer digs in Flagstaff. I think it will become a regular spot to drink my morning coffee and grow contemplative.

I am adapting well to my new setting. I’m even adjusting to the altitude. My home in Portsmouth, Virginia is a whopping eight feet (2.5 m) above sea level. We never lack for useful things like oxygen or atmospheric pressure there. Now, here in Flagstaff, I am at almost 7,000 feet (2,100 m). At the end of my first week I’m no longer gasping as I climb the stairs to the apartment, but I do take it slowly. I sometimes find myself mentally adding elevation and counting  7,001 feet… 7,002 feet… 7,003 feet… with each step up.

For the Geologically Inclined: The strata revealed on the western wall of the canyon in this photo are like old friends from visits to the Grand Canyon, about 100 miles to the north. At top are the marine sediments that make up the Kaibab Formation. Below are the grayish Toroweap Formation and the golden Coconino Sandstones, compressed from ancient dunes. The reddish layer is the only stratum seen in the escarpment in Oak Creek that does not occur in the Grand Canyon – the Schnebley Hill Formation, famous for the red-rock features of nearby Sedona. At the bottom of the canyon is the Hermit Formation, clad at this elevation with a forest of ponderosa pines. A fault runs through the course of Oak Creek, and slippage has left the eastern wall of the canyon as much as 1,000 feet lower than the western side.