View to the southwest. Mile marker 184 is just above the lower edge of the picture where the Colorado River begins to curve back toward the left. There are multiple lava flows and volcanic cinder cones in this section with several cinder cones visible to the right of the river. The river meets multiple local branches within the Hurricane Fault Zone in the middle distance where it turns left again (just before Whitmore Wash/Canyon).

   This area is on the west side of the Toroweap Fault and thus on the "down" side. Hence there has been less net downward cutting by the river over the last million years. The inner gorge thus records a million year cyclic history of canyon cutting, partial filling by lava flows, followed by more canyon cutting, more lava flows, etc.

   The Bright Angel Shale that surfaced to the east of the Toroweap Fault is initially dropped back below the surface west of the Toroweap Fault, but the strata still tilt upward toward the west. Within a few miles the Bright Angel surfaces again as well as the lower Tapeats Sandstone and the top few feet of the underlying Precambrian schist and granite. Then, west of the Hurricane Fault, these layers are dropped below the surface again.