Grand Canon of the Colorado River, Mouth of Kanab Wash Looking West

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Looking west from the mouth of Kanab Wash, this view shows the Colorado River winding into the eastern reaches of the Grand Canyon, where side canyons feed into the main channel. The river has cut through layers of rock here for millions of years, exposing a sequence of colored cliffs and benches that geologists use to read the region's deep past. Visitors and expedition parties traveling the river in the late 1800s would have passed through country like this, where the canyon walls rise steeply and the water runs fast and narrow. The scene makes clear how the canyon was shaped by water working against stone over an immense span of time.

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