Freya Castle is a summit located in the Grand Canyon, in

Coconino County Coconino County is a county in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. Its population was 145,101 at the 2020 census. The county seat is Flagstaff. The county takes its name from ''Cohonino'', a name applied to the Havasupai p ...

of northern

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, US. It is situated one mile southeast of the Cape Royal overlook on the canyon's North Rim, 1.5 mile north of

Vishnu Temple Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...

, and 1.7 mile northeast of Wotans Throne.

Topographic relief Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin w ...

is significant as it rises above the Unkar Valley in one mile. Freya Castle is named for

Freya In Norse paganism, Freyja (Old Norse "(the) Lady") is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr (magic for seeing and influencing the future). Freyja is the owner of the necklace Brísingamen, rides a chario ...

, the Norse goddess of love, beauty, fertility, sex, war, gold, and seiðr. This name was applied by geologist François E. Matthes, in keeping with

Clarence Dutton Clarence Edward Dutton (May 15, 1841 – January 4, 1912) was an American geologist and US Army officer. Dutton was born in Wallingford, Connecticut on May 15, 1841. He graduated from Yale College in 1860 and took postgraduate courses there until ...

's practice of naming geographical features in the Grand Canyon after mythological deities. This geographical feature's name was officially adopted in 1906 by the

U.S. Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal govern ...

. The

first ascent In mountaineering, a first ascent (abbreviated to FA in guide books) is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain or the first to follow a particular climbing route. First mountain ascents are notable because they en ...

of the summit was made by

Harvey Butchart John Harvey Butchart (May 10, 1907 – May 29, 2002) was a mathematics professor who was well known for his hiking exploits in and around the Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States. Beginning in 1945, Butchart explored the Grand Canyon's backco ...

and Allyn Cureton on June 24, 1962. According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Freya Castle is located in a

Cold semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

zone.

Geology

The summit of Freya Castle is composed of cream-colored

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

Coconino Sandstone Coconino Sandstone is a geologic formation named after its exposure in Coconino County, Arizona. This formation spreads across the Colorado Plateau province of the United States, including northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, Nevada, and Utah. ...

. The sandstone, which is the third-youngest of the strata in the Grand Canyon, was deposited 265 million years ago as sand dunes. Below the Coconino Sandstone is soft, slope-forming, Permian Hermit Shale, which in turn overlays the

- Pennsylvanian- Supai Group. Further down are strata of Mississippian

Redwall Limestone The Redwall Limestone is a resistant cliff-forming unit of Mississippian age that forms prominent, red-stained cliffs in the Grand Canyon, ranging in height from to . Lithology Redwall Limestone consists predominantly of light-olive-gray to ...

, Cambrian Tonto Group, and finally Proterozoic

Unkar Group The Unkar Group is a sequence of strata of Proterozoic age that are subdivided into five geologic formations and exposed within the Grand Canyon, Arizona, Southwestern United States. The 5-unit Unkar Group is the basal member of the 8-member Gr ...

at creek level.William Kenneth Hamblin, ''Anatomy of the Grand Canyon: Panoramas of the Canyon's Geology'', 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher, Precipitation

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock marke ...

from Freya Castle drains south into 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 watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

via Vishnu Creek on its west side, and Unkar Creek on the east side.

Gallery

File:Grand Canyon National Park NR Cape Royal 0657 (5498458450).jpg, Freya Castle centered, with Vishnu Temple to right,

Apollo Temple Apollo Temple is a 6,252-foot-elevation (1,906 meter) summit located in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of northern Arizona, US. It is situated four miles due east of Cape Royal on the canyon's North Rim, four miles northeast of Vishn ...

distant left File:Walhalla Overlook, North Rim, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona.jpg, Freya Castle front and center, with Vishnu Temple behind, as seen from Walhalla Overlook. File:More Inversion Shots 0792 - Flickr - Grand Canyon NPS.jpg, Freya Castle (left),

(right) File:Rama, Vishnu, Freya.jpg, View from northeast at Cape Final.
Left to right: Rama Shrine, Vishnu Temple, Freya Castle File:Varied landscape within the Grand Canyon (8115191576).jpg, summit detail File:Gran Cañón desde Cape Royal 01.jpg, summit detail

References

External links

* Weather forecast
National Weather Service
{{Geology of the Grand Canyon area, , state=collapsed Grand Canyon Landforms of Coconino County, Arizona Mountains of Arizona Mountains of Coconino County, Arizona North American 2000 m summits Colorado Plateau Grand Canyon National Park

Geology

Gallery

See also

References

External links