View looking toward the west with Bright Angel Creek just above the lower right edge. Grand Canyon Village can be seen at the left edge, and parts of the Bright Angel Trail (leaves from the rim near the village) can be faintly seen coming down Garden Canyon. In the upper left corner Hopi and Pima Points are accessible via the West Rim Drive, and provide viewpoints into the canyon.

   A 1.7 to 1.8 billion year old complex of schist, gneiss, and granite characterizes the inner gorge. The flattish layer above this is the Tonto Plateau, which is formed where the Bright Angel Shale erodes down to the resistant Tapeats Sandstone. On the South Rim, the rest of the Paleozoic Sequence forms a nearly continuous cliff up to the rim, but the Redwall Limestone’s distinctive cliff is readily identifiable in the buttes to the north (right) of the river.

   The combination of a still steep river gradient (> 10 ft/mi), a constricted channel, and steep tributary canyons (especially on the south side of the river) produces several short but abrupt rapids in this section of the Grand Canyon - including Horn Creek, Granite and Hermit Rapids.

   View looking to the west-northwest with Hopi Point in the lower left corner and the tip of Pima Point just above it. Monument Canyon is in-between the two points, and debris that washes down it feeds Granite Rapid.  Hermit Canyon enters from the left edge and produces another major rapid (Hermit Rapid) where it dumps debris into the river. Where the river curves to the right out of sight, Boucher Creek/Canyon generates still another rapid, but Boucher Rapid doesn’t have the magnitude of the others.


Return to river miles 80 to 88

Continue to river miles 96 to 104

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