Cataract Canyon is a

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

of the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

located within

Canyonlands National Park Canyonlands National Park is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their r ...

and

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (shortened to Glen Canyon NRA or GCNRA) is a national recreation area and conservation unit of the United States National Park Service that encompasses the area around Lake Powell and lower Cataract Canyon i ...

in southern

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. It begins at Colorado's confluence with the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

, and its downstream terminus is the confluence with the

Dirty Devil River The Dirty Devil River is an tributary of the Colorado River, located in the U.S. state of Utah. It flows through southern Utah from the confluence of the Fremont River and Muddy Creek before emptying into the Colorado River at Lake Powell. Cour ...

. The lower half of the canyon is submerged beneath

Lake Powell Lake Powell is an artificial reservoir on the Colorado River in Utah and Arizona, United States. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. It is the second largest artificial reservoir by maximum ...

when the lake is at its normal high water elevation of .

Geology

Cataract Canyon is cut by the Colorado River into the

Colorado Plateau The Colorado Plateau, also known as the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. This province covers an area of ...

, a vast continental uplift comprising much of the American Southwest. Until approximately 80 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau was near sea level. Over millions of years, a series of inland oceans transgressed onto and regressed from the region, resulting in a series of horizontally deposited rock layers. Approximately 70 to 80 million years ago, a series of mountain-building events called the

Laramide orogeny The Laramide orogeny was a time period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the o ...

uplifted the entire region. The Colorado River subsequently cut through the rock layers, exposing them. The oldest rock layer visible in Cataract Canyon is the Paradox Formation, which was deposited approximately 320 million years ago.

History

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, most likely of the

Fremont culture The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archaeological culture which received its name from the Fremont River in the U.S. state of Utah, where the culture's sites were discovered by local indigenous peoples like the Navajo and Ute ...

, inhabited the Canyonlands area long before European settlers arrived.

Rock art In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...

and ruins, at least 800 years old, have been found in Cataract Canyon. Because of the remote location, it was some time before European explorers and settlers reached the area. The Colorado River and its canyons were more of an obstacle to travel than a destination to be explored. The first recorded European to reach Cataract Canyon was a fur trapper named Denis Julien in 1836. Julien carved his name into a rock wall in the lower section of Cataract Canyon, though this inscription is now covered by Lake Powell.Canyonlands European Explorers
(National Park Service) The first organized exploration to travel the entire length of Cataract Canyon was the Powell Expedition in 1869, led by

John Wesley Powell John Wesley Powell (March 24, 1834 – September 23, 1902) was an American geologist, U.S. Army soldier, explorer of the American West, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, and director of major scientific and cultural institutions. He ...

, a one-armed

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

veteran who launched in wooden boats near

Green River, Wyoming Green River is a city in and the county seat of Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 12,515 at the 2010 census. History The townsite of Green River, Dakota Territory was platte ...

and traveled down the

to its confluence with the Colorado River at the top of Cataract Canyon. The rapids of Cataract Canyon terrified Powell and his men. The expedition portaged their boats around every rapid in the canyon, a difficult and arduous task. Because of the difficulty of the rapids, Powell named the canyon Cataract Canyon. After exiting Cataract Canyon, Powell continued his trip downstream through Glen Canyon, now submerged by

, and ultimately the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon (, yuf-x-yav, Wi:kaʼi:la, , Southern Paiute language: Paxa’uipi, ) is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a m ...

before ending his trip near the mouth of the

Virgin River The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about long.Calculated with Google Maps and Google Earth It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the ...

. Other river runners soon followed. Nathanial Galloway made numerous trips through the canyon in 1894. Galloway would later pioneer rowing techniques still used by river runners today. Brothers Emery and Ellsworth Kolb traveled through the canyon in 1911. The Kolb brothers eventually established a studio on the south rim of the Grand Canyon, where they featured videos of their exploits running the rapids of the Colorado River. Buzz Holmstrom made a solo trip through Cataract Canyon and Grand Canyon in 1937, eventually ending at the newly constructed

Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...

. The first commercial outfitter to offer trips through Cataract Canyon was

Norman Nevills Norman D. Nevills (April 9, 1908 – September 19, 1949) was a pioneer of commercial river-running in the American Southwest, particularly the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. He led trips including Dr. Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter, the f ...

in 1938. The advent of rubber rafts came about in the early 1950s with the availability of surplus rubber rafts from

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. River runners found the rubber rafts easier to maneuver and much more forgiving than their wooden counterparts. With this newer equipment, many commercial outfitters began running Grand Canyon and Cataract Canyon.History of Cataract Canyon

Whitewater rafting

Cataract Canyon remains a popular

whitewater rafting Rafting and whitewater rafting are recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water. This is often done on whitewater or different degrees of rough water. Dealing with risk is often a ...

destination today. The rapids in the canyon are generally considered "big water", with a character similar to those found in

. Cataract Canyon is rated on the Class I-VI International Scale of River Difficulty, unlike the Grand Canyon, which is rated on a scale of one to ten. Also, unlike Grand Canyon, the flow of the

through Cataract Canyon is far enough downstream from a dam that it is generally unregulated. The river can reach extreme levels during the spring runoff in years following plentiful snow throughout the Colorado River watershed. During an average spring runoff, the Colorado River will peak at approximately . The maximum recorded flow of occurred on May 27, 1984.Historic Flows in Cataract Canyon
National Park Service, Retrieved 2009-10-27 The rapids of Cataract Canyon become difficult at flows above and extreme at flows above .
National Park Service, Retrieved 2009-10-27 Most rapids in Cataract Canyon are simply named from upstream to downstream as Rapid 1, Rapid 2, etc. However, some rapids within the canyon have separate names due to their location or notoriety. Particularly notorious are the "Big Drops", a set of three rapids in short succession named "Big Drop 1", "Big Drop 2" and "Big Drop 3". During high water, these three rapids essentially run together to form one very large rapid. These rapids contain many large hydraulic features, including "Little Niagara", "Satan's Gut", and "The Claw". During times of high runoff, the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

sometimes establishes a camp below the big drops and uses a jetboat to facilitate rescues of capsized rafts and their passengers. However, it is generally understood that all river runners attempting Cataract Canyon at any river level should be capable of self-rescue and not depend on the NPS for support. Spanish Bottom Sunrise

Cataract Canyon historically contained several rapids, which are currently submerged beneath

and have been buried in lake sediment. "Gypsum Canyon Rapid" and "Dark Canyon Rapid" were considered very difficult rapids to navigate. River trips that run Cataract Canyon must also run one of the flatwater sections above the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. Most groups launch at Potash (on the Colorado River) or Mineral Bottom (on the Green River) and spend up to five days on the river before entering Cataract Canyon. Motorized trips can make the trip into Cataract Canyon in less time, often one day. In addition to the flatwater at the beginning of the trip, all groups must traverse

before reaching the take-out at the

or Hite Marina. Depending on the water level in Lake Powell, up to of lake water may be encountered by groups exiting the canyon. Several commercial outfitters offer guided trips through Cataract Canyon. These trips vary between one and six days and utilize both motorized and non-motorized vessels. Private groups must obtain a permit from the National Park Service before embarking on a Cataract Canyon trip.Canyonlands National Park Permit Information
Retrieved 2009-10-27

References

External links

Cataract Canyon Information (National Park Service)
{{Coord, 37, 52, 39, N, 110, 17, 38, W, display=title Canyons and gorges of Utah Canyonlands National Park Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Canyons and gorges of Garfield County, Utah Landforms of San Juan County, Utah Landforms of Wayne County, Utah Colorado River

Geology

History

Whitewater rafting

See also

References

External links