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Grand Falls
Photo by Christa Sadler
This photo, taken a previous March, is of Grand Falls of the Little Colorado River where it launches off its canyon rim about 30 miles northeast of Flagstaff. From here it travels west to where it enters the Grand Canyon. Grand Falls formed thousands of years ago when lava from nearby Merriam Crater blocked the river and forced it into a wide detour, after which it comes back into its channel by pouring over limestone cliffs of the Kaibab Formation. In early summer, fall and winter, the Little Colorado doesn't flow, and the cliffs are just stairsteps of a dry river bed. During summer, thunderstorms and spring snowmelt from the high country; however, the river picks up soft sediments from the Navajo Reservation as it flows from the White Mountains in eastern Arizona. When it reaches Grand Falls, the slurry of mud and water spills over the edge, and the brown mist paints the walls of the canyon. At 185 feet, Grand Falls is higher than Niagara Falls.
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