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I tried to annotate the panorama above by
labeling some prominent features as best I could. I had to guess at a
couple (Wallace Butte and Fossil Mountain) but they seem right
according to the map I have. Several of the features appear in the
later photos again and again, so it helps to have the names. Take a
look. Click on the small image to view it at the same size as the original.
We arrived at the
trailhead after a 30 mile drive on dirt roads from Tusayan, Arizona an
hour or two before dark on Wednesday, 25 October, when this picture
was taken.
After a nice hot dinner we camped for the night at the trailhead and had a good hearty breakfast of pancakes and sausage and hot coffee before departing. We left the trailhead at about 8:45 the next morning.
As we descended along the
South Bass trail we were afforded several pretty views of Mount
Huethawali. I took several shots of this mountain along the way, but
my el-cheapo disposible cameras didn't give any exposure control, so
this one's the best I've got. It is taken just as we leveled out on
the Esplanade (in the foreground, with Huxley Terrace extending off to
the right background).
From the same spot, I turned to my
right and shot this image of Fossil Mountain (I think). You can
compare this view to the one in the panorama to get a sense of how far
down we've come by now.
A little beyond the spot
where I snapped the last two, here's a shot looking forward on our
party across the Esplanade. I think this shot caught the sense of how
vast and featureless this part of the canyon was --- and some of us hiked
out across this in the dark the next night.
Here we are dropping into Bass
Canyon. Note Wallace Butte on the left and Holy Grail Temple in the
center background. Both features are a bit hard to see in this image,
which is washed out where the sun was brightest, but the annotations
in the larger image that you get when you click this one should help you out.
Here we are pausing for a snack while we
cache a couple of quarts of water behind the rocks. Left to right: A
little bit of Susan, Pat and Linda, Mike, Greg and Janet.
Here's the view of Bass Canyon
from just beyond our water cache spot.
I was pretty impressed with
this large hole in the wall. Hard to get the scale from this picture,
but it must have been at least fifty feet from top to bottom.
This is a view of Bass Canyon
taken back along the trail. We're a good way down along the trail
from the last ("hole in the wall") picture by now.
Here is a
view of Holy Grail temple. By comparing with the original panorama,
you can see we've descended pretty far, as we're well below Wallace
Butte by now. The formation to the left of us, just cut off by the
left border of the picture, is Tyndall Dome.
