Canyon Country.
A rugged empire of towering rock...
in the outback of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona.
From a labyrinth of flooded canyons...
to a barren landscape that holds the secrets
of a rich geological past.
It is one of North America's last great wild lands.
A parched plateau of swirling sandstone...
devoid of shade and water.
There are no maps, no signs...
just wilderness.
One little thing goes wrong you may not make it out.
A place where the earth's inner fires
erupt in billows of eternal smoke.
A land rich in marine fossils
revealing million-year-old secrets
of an ancient ocean.
These are little pieces of the puzzle,
the window that brings us back in time
to what the Earth must have been like back then.
And a rarely seen view
of one of the world's most remote
and rugged natural wonders.
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Glen Canyon.
A maze of soaring rock
stretching across more than a million acres
of the southwest United States
straddling southern Utah and the tip of northern Arizona.
An enchanted landscape of twisting canyons
mirrored in the emerald waters of Lake Powell
and the Colorado River Basin.
It's just a very scenic landscape
that just has no comparison anywhere else.
Dubbed "the land no one knew"
the far reaches of Glen Canyon were seldom travelled
until the middle of the last century
and today remain largely undiscovered.
I don't think the world really knows
how terrific this area is.
There is so much that is unique and yet hasn't been touched.
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That term "the place no one knew"
was used because back in the 1950s
Grand Canyon had already attracted a lot of attention.
Glen Canyon is such a remarkable feat of nature
that it still manages to impress
when compared to one of the world's
most celebrated natural wonders.
Its close neighbor...
the Grand Canyon.
In the late 19th century the promise of minerals
peaked an interest in mining at the Grand Canyon.
Though tourism proved to be more profitable.
By the turn of the 20th century
the Grand Canyon was one of America's
most popular tourist destinations.
It had a railroad that went to the south rim
by 1901.
Farther upstream there was a lot of activity
but this canyon, Glen Canyon, was kind of left alone.
Glen Canyon was named by Major John Wesley Powell:
The first explorer to journey down the mighty Colorado River.
Once deemed, the most treacherous waterway
in the northern hemisphere.
In 1869, Major John Wesley Powell
and 9 of his men embarked on a journey
of 1,000 miles of unchartered canyons,
a voyage that would change the West
forever.
The expedition lasted a total of 100 days.
The rapids of the Colorado River
were hostile through Grand Canyon.
Supplies were ripped away...
food and water scarce...
lives lost.
In Glen Canyon it was quite a bit different
than it was downstream in Grand Canyon.
The gradient of the river was so low
there were very few rapids, so it was a relief to be here
in this beautiful place.
The name comes from all of the vegetated alcoves
that lay along the river.
There was more vegetation here
than they had seen upstream or downstream
so it was a very beautiful place
that did not require portaging boats around rapids
and it was very quiet.
After a second grueling expedition
Major John Wesley Powell became the first
to map the hostile Colorado River.
At that time in 1869
this part of the map of North America
was pretty much blank and we did not know really
how the Colorado got from the state of Colorado
down to Arizona and California.
Glen Canyon...
Grand Canyon...
And a vast expanse of Canyon Country were excavated
by the Colorado River over millions of years.
More than 1,450 miles long
flowing through seven different states
the Colorado is the central artery
of the Southwestern United States.
It is the American Nile.
In spring rain and melting snow
roll down the Rocky Mountains
feeding into streams and tributaries
then converging at the Colorado.
This river system is collectively known
as the Colorado River Basin.
Draining more than 240,000 square miles,
an area as large as France,
the basin covers nearly 10% of the United States.
The same percentage of Africa that is drained by the Nile.
For millions of years
these rivers have been flowing through the landscape
carrying debris and boulders downstream
carving out the depths of Canyon Country.
The steep Colorado River and its tributaries
powered through the gully:
Chiseling the scenic landscape of Glen Canyon.
The downward journey of the Colorado
is not always a straight line.
Water takes the path of least resistance
sometimes meandering down the landscape
taking wide and swooping turns.
Horseshoe Bend.
A loop of turquoise water twists between
the soaring sandstone walls
carving more than 1,000-feet into the canyon.
An astounding 270° turn in the river's ancient path
is preserved in stone.
The canyon walls are largely made of sandstone.
Particles of sand bound together by minerals.
Over time, these bonds are broken
by the flowing waters of the Colorado.
And the river's winding path is engraved into the land:
Marking the beginning of what one-day might be
a natural bridge.
The natural bridges of Canyon Country
form in the meanders of the river's path.
As water carves deep into the groove
it hits an impenetrable rock layer
beneath the sandstone.
With its downward excavation at a halt
the stream widens its path instead
undercutting the surrounding canyon walls.
Over time, water wears down the inner wall
as it curves around the bend
leaving the narrow neck of the meander
vulnerable to erosion.
Eventually, the stream pierces through the weakened rock
taking a short cut through the wall.
With time, this hole is widened by the new path of the river.
The result is a natural bridge:
One of nature's most beautifully
engineered structures.
Up the Colorado River
nestled in a canyon north of Horseshoe Bend,
a natural bridge stands proudly arched above its maker...
Rainbow Bridge.
Taller than a 20-story skyscraper...
Nearly as long as a football field...
It is the world's largest natural bridge.
The Navajo, a native tribe that has resided in the area
for hundreds of years considers the bridge sacred,
a protector of the universe.
In the Navajo language the bridge is called Nonnezoshi
meaning "rainbow turned to stone."
In Navajo culture the Bridge is believed
to capture the essence of the desert
serving as a symbol of the divine powers
that created clouds, rainbows, and rain.
Special prayers are offered
passing beneath the sacred bridge.
Failure to do so is believed to bring a lifetime
of misfortune.
Rainbow Bridge was once among the most remote
and inaccessible areas in North America.
Today, a man-made reservoir
floods the surrounding streams and canyons
and gives access to the bridge by way of water.
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Lake Powell.
Stretching across 186 miles
of Northern Arizona to Southern Utah.
It is the second largest man-made reservoir
in the United States.
Lake Powell and its flooded canyons
are fringed by more than 2,000 miles of shoreline,
a distance longer than the entire west coast
of the United States.
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The lake was formed by the construction
of Glen Canyon Dam more than half a century ago.
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The building of the dam began with the pouring
of damp concrete.
Each bucket of concrete weighed 24 tons:
As heavy as 12 cars.
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Construction lasted three years
and required more than 400,000 buckets of concrete,
enough to lay a four-lane highway
through all of Italy and Spain.
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Lake Powell stretches across 13% of Glen Canyon
and holds up to 27 million acre-feet of water,
enough to flood the entire landmass of Cuba
in a foot of water.
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It is a reservoir
storing the waters of the Colorado River
to be used in times of drought.
Its waters flow through a hydro-powerplant
at the toe of Glen Canyon Dam.
Eight massive turbines fueled by generators
convert water to electricity.
Operating at full capacity,
more than 15 million gallons of water
pass through the power plant each minute
providing electricity to 6 million Americans.
But some wonder, at what cost?
Calm...
Still...
Serene...
Lake Powell is one of the world's
most scenic places.
But it is also one of the most controversial.
In the desert sun of Canyon Country
nearly 3% of the lake's volume evaporates each year.
A white line along the flooded canyon walls
indicates the level of water that once occupied this lake.
It is referred to as a "bathtub ring."
Calcium carbonate and other minerals in the water
attach to sandstone and leave behind a chalky streak
as they evaporate.
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The Colorado River once zigzagged
through Glen Canyon...
Muddy and savage.
Today, it is one of the most
highly controlled rivers in the world
with 15 dams installed along its path.
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The waters of the Colorado,
not controlled by Glen Canyon Dam
blush in the south-western sun.
Dirt and sand carried by the river
color its waters red.
When Spanish explorers first caught sight
of the silty river they were astounded
by its striking hue, naming it Rio Colorado:
Red River.
Today, the silt stays trapped behind the dam
and with it, its red color.
Native fish dependent on the silty, life-giving minerals
of the Colorado's muddy waters
are unable to survive beyond the dam.
Unnaturally cold waters
released from the bottom of Glen Canyon Dam
pose another problem.
River temperatures once as high as 85° Fahrenheit
plunge to lows of 44, too cold for the fish to spawn.
These environmental changes
threaten the populations of many native species
in the river corridor
between Glen Canyon Dam and Hoover Dam.
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The natural landscape of Glen Canyon
shaped by the Colorado River and its tributaries
is always changing.
Over millions of years plateaus turn into mesas
flat-topped landmasses wider than they are tall.
These mesas worn down by erosion
become narrower rocks, known as buttes.
Eventually these buttes will erode away to pinnacles.
Until they too surrender to erosion
and crumble to the valley floor.
The stages in which the landscape of Glen Canyon
was sculpted are locked in stone.
Formed during the age of dinosaurs
Glen Canyon's sandstone walls
date back to the Jurassic period.
We're sitting and standing on rocks
that go back about 160 million years,
180 million years.
And we're looking at landscapes
that have been carved out of those rocks.
We end up with shapes and sculptures
that you just don't see anywhere else.
And then having a lake water lapping up
against these beautiful rocks
and the combination of blue water and red rocks
is all also pretty hard to beat.
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The landscapes that we see today are just a snapshot
of what's going on here over a long period of time.
More than 160 million years ago
the sandstone castles of Glen Canyon
were massive, wind-blown desert dunes.
And the mahogany rock layer
that lines the foothills of its canyons
an inland sea.
As the ground rose and fell the landscape changed
transforming inland seas into desert dunes.
Over time, these environments deposited in sedimentary layers
were preserved in stone.
Like the chapters of a history book
each layer tells the story of a geological past.
Certain periods of time within the rock layers
are completely missing
referred to by geologists as unconformities:
eras when the environment did not deposit enough sediment
to create a layer.
With no record in the rocks
entire chapters in the geological history
of Canyon Country remain a mystery.
West of Glen Canyon an ancient ocean floor
provides clues to a mysterious past.
Dark...
Dry...
Desolate...
Deserted.
A place the locals call "the moon"
for its otherworldly form and color.
The Tropic Shale.
A stark graveyard of prehistoric bones
that once teemed with marine life.
I've been fossil hunting in the southwest for a long time
and I have training as a geologist
and I've found a lot of significant fossil sites
in this formation of The Tropic Shale.
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The fossils that we find here tell us a lot about the biology
and the history of what the earth was like here
so long ago.
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These are little pieces of the puzzle,
the window that brings us back in time
to what the Earth must have been like back then.
And every single discovery that's made out here
is an extremely important piece of that puzzle
that helps us see exactly what was going on.
Rich in marine fossils
the Tropic Shale reveals the 90-million-year-old secrets
of an ancient ocean.
The remnants found here are from the Cretaceous period:
The age of dinosaurs.
If you were here 90 million years ago
you would be in the middle of an inland sea called
the Western Interior Seaway
that covered most of western North America.
And you would see fish swimming around in this ocean.
You would see giant turtles
that were the size of vehicles swimming around.
A vast array of different types of sharks
some of which are now extinct.
There were seagoing marine reptiles
that were also swimming around in this ocean.
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The colors of the Tropic Shale
help tell the story of these fossils.
Deep grey coloration indicates
there was a lot of carbon and little oxygen
on the bottom of this ocean:
What is called an anoxic environment.
A lack of oxygen decreased the number
of microbial and other smaller life forms
that typically consume the bones collected on an ocean floor
making the tropic shale an ideal environment
for preserving the fossils of the marine life
that once swam in these waters.
It's interesting that you can go to a desert
in the southwest and hike around in a very remote location
and find a shark tooth at 4,000-feet elevation
when it's 104° outside.
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This is a Cretaceous shark tooth that we just found close by here
in the tropic shale.
You have part of the root here has been snapped off.
This is what's known as an eyetooth,
which is one of the side teeth from the main tooth,
which is also snapped on the top.
It's broken but still beautifully preserved.
Along the Tropic Shale
deposited in shallower, beach waters
are millions of fossilized oysters
embedded in the sandstone as far as the eye can see.
Their shells, tightly packed together
protected by the stone.
Oysters live in shallow, salt-water environments.
These fossilized oysters provide a window
into an oceanic past.
So this entire area behind me here
was a beach 90 million years ago.
Right on the oceanfront,
which is the darker sediment right above the beach.
This beach is just caked in oysters,
which is one of the indications why we know it was a beach.
When you look at the rocks here,
there are actually so many oysters
packed together here,
you can hardly even tell one oyster from the next.
Here's one of these oysters,
beautifully preserved for 90 million years.
It's really fascinating to go walk along
this ancient beach
and you can almost imagine being there
90 million years ago.
There would be oysters living in the sand
underneath your feet
and it would be like a tropical paradise
as opposed to what you see today,
a very dry, desolate desert.
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From an ancient ocean floor
to one of the world's largest sand-dune deserts
the rocks of Canyon Country reveal a rich geological history
layer by layer.
South of the Tropic Shale
along the deep meander of the Colorado River
its tributary, the Paria River
carves through the narrow, twisting canyons
of the Paria Plateau.
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Above the valley lies a barren stretch
of pristine desert brimming with geologic wonders.
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Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness Area:
More than 250 acres of rugged, unspoiled beauty.
A remote expanse of desert atop the towering Paria Plateau
girded by 2,000-feet of soaring, crimson cliffs
stretches across more than 30 miles of Northern Arizona.
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It's the most beautiful country I've ever seen.
To me it is a place that looks like
it's touched by the divine.
In the scorching desert sun
the Vermillion Cliffs burn with a fiery, red glow.
The ground sweats
releasing shimmering waves of heat.
A blooming flower alone among the desert shrubs
sways in the summer wind.
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Wildlife is nowhere to be seen.
High up in the cliffs
the largest land birds in North America
California Condors wait out the desert sun
in the shelter of a shaded cave.
Few creatures can survive the desert's extreme conditions.
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Summer temperatures can spike to 115° Fahrenheit.
But that's not the start of it.
What you need to worry about is the fact that from the ground
and from the rocks the heat is reverberating back to you.
So it is like a pressure cooker.
Sandstone dominates the landscape
of the Vermillion Cliffs
trapping the scorching rays of sun
deep inside the ground.
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There is no water and little vegetation
to relieve the heat.
Plants cool the landscape through a process
called transpiration.
As the surrounding air heats up
plants release excess water into the atmosphere
cooling both themselves and the surrounding air.
Junipers, sprinkled across the barren land
offer little relief in the way of shade.
The fleeting shadow from an overhang
on the escarpment provides a moment of reprieve.
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At night, as the sun retreats
and heat escapes the rocks
temperatures can drop to lows of 60°
as much as a 30° difference from the daytime.
You really need to bring as much as you can
as far as layering: long-sleeve shirts, hats,
things that will protect you.
You know you wouldn't go out into the Sahara Desert
ill-prepared.
The landscape of Vermillion Cliffs
was, in fact, once an ancient desert
as vast as the Sahara.
A remote and isolated patch of sandstone
hidden in the Northwest corner of Vermillion
exposes its ancient past.
The Coyote Buttes,
a landscape of colorful, swirling sandstone
that must be seen to be believed.
You won't see anything else like it in the world.
I've travelled pretty extensively myself
and I've never seen formations
that are this inspiring and mind boggling and moving.
The journey out to the Coyote Buttes
is no easy feat.
There are no signs, no maps.
Just desert.
It's an area that can be really unforgiving.
Mother Nature's learning curve here is very harsh
if you're not prepared.
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You need your maps, you need to study them.
You need to be prepared with a cache of food.
And you need to hydrate.
I can't say enough that you have need to hydrate
before you head out.
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Folks will head out and be unfamiliar with the area,
get totally turned around or get dehydrated
because they haven't had enough water.
There's no signs
and they start hiking another way
and they're lost.
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I feel like out here,
we're on a bit of a tenuous thread
that if someone were to pull that tiny little thread,
everything is unravelled in a moment.
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One little thing goes wrong you may not make it out.
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The South Coyote Buttes
tucked away in the northwest corner
of the Vermillion Wilderness Area.
A billowing landscape stained white, orange and red.
Isolated sandstone peaks emerge from level ground
like tents pitched in the middle of a desert.
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More than 200 million years ago
these summits were massive, wind-blown sand dunes
that spanned what is now the stretch
from Wyoming to Las Vegas.
It was one of the world's largest deserts.
Water filled with minerals filtered through the desert
binding sand particles together like cement.
Over millions of years
desert sands turned to sandstone.
As ancient winds blew across the desert
sand dunes were stacked one on top of the other
creating a rippled pattern.
Hardened over time to rock these ripples were preserved
as smooth, colored ribbons of sandstone.
Each color represents a different chemical reaction
between sand, minerals, and water.
Over millions of years
the landscape is bleached and stained band by band
in perfectly aligned horizontal stripes.
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Pockets of the North Coyote Buttes
give way to a chaotic landscape
of tangled reds, whites, and creams...
and bunches of rock robbed of color.
You will come to places that feel like
it's out of this world.
And they are magically unspoiled.
A place where you can really be close to nature
and have that connection.
And it feels like being on another planet.
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Curious swells and weaving twists of color
paint the desert landscape.
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You're seeing cream splashed
against these brilliant oranges and reds and grey
and then the strata, the formations kind of you know
there's places where it undulates and swirls
and it kind of smears together
almost like a really luscious ice cream cone.
It is a different interpretation that everyone walks away with.
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To see all of those
mind-boggling formations and colors
just kind of smeared and mixed together
and mashed together
and kind of wonder how the earth did this,
how the elements pushed all of these things together
and molded them and melted them together.
It's really beautiful.
The processes that yielded these bizarre formations
have stumped geologists for years.
The contortions, twists and grooves
are thought to have occurred in the Jurassic period
more than 100 million years ago
when this was an ancient desert.
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Some geologists believe this unusual landscape
is the product of a process called soft sediment formation.
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A sand-slide triggered by an earthquake
mixed different layers of sand.
Over millions of years these sands solidified to stone
shaping one of nature's most miraculously painted landscapes.
North of the Vermillion Cliffs,
high above the Colorado River and its string of canyons
smoke dances in the evening glow of the setting sun
exhaled from the mouth of a blackened fissure
that peers deep into the earth.
Smokey Mountain.
Overlooking the rugged peaks and valley plains
of Canyon Country
a mountain range that hints at fires burning deep within.
A build-up of black tar lines fissures
scattered on the mountaintop.
The pungent odor of an old, coal-burning furnace
is evidence of a fire burning miles below the ground.
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Millions of years ago
a coal deposit, deep below the earth
was set ablaze.
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The source that sparked the flame
remains a mystery.
Geologists suggest the fire was ignited
either by spontaneous combustion
or a strike of lightning.
A seemingly endless supply of coal fuels the fire.
Oxygen entering through the fissures
keeps it burning like a natural chimney.
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The crimson color of the cliff face
indicates the age and power of the fire deep within.
The coal oxidizes iron minerals trapped within the rock
changing the coloration of the cliffs from brown to red.
Similar to the ruddy bricks of an aging furnace.
An indication that this fire has been burning
for millions of years.
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With so much valuable coal going up in smoke
government agencies and coal companies
tried to extinguish the fire in the 1960s.
Their efforts failed.
In 1996, a proposed coal mine in the area was quashed
when US President Bill Clinton designated this area
a national park.
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As the sun descends on Canyon Country
smoke clouds billow from the fissures.
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The inner fires of Smokey Mountain
will stay ablaze through the night
and for countless nights to come.
From the winding sandstone labyrinth
of Glen Canyon...
to the swirling sands of The Vermillion Cliffs...
The Canyon Country of the American south-west
is a land of raw and rugged beauty.
It's unlike anything else that you see anywhere else on Earth.
A barren landscape that once teemed
with prehistoric life.
Every fossil is a little window back into that past.
A place to connect with nature.
Today, we are running way too fast.
Need to slow down and just listen
and sometimes the only thing that we hear is nothing at all.
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In the outback of Canyon Country
water slowly deepen canyons...
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And winds sculpt desert plains
as they have for millions of years.
Eroded by the elements and by time
this land writes the story of its creation
line by line.
Sometimes revealing a surprising geological past.
Other times keeping its origins
a secret.
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