Wednesday, October 11, 2006

 

Vasey's Paradise, one of many springs that flow from the Grand Canyon's walls. The Redwall Limestone is highly water permeable and riddled with caves. It's lower neighbour, the Muav Limeston is much less permeable, so a large number of springs in the Canyon issue forth at the Redwall-Muav contact. The spring at Vasey's has noticeably diminished in volume over the years, even within my own memory. It is one of the few homes of the endangered Kanab Land Snail (the Park Service occasionally issues risible missives exhorting the public to "minimize human-snail conflict"), and up close is well-endowed with red monkeyflowers and poison ivy. Posted by Picasa