Where did the Canyon's Lower Granite Gorge go?
Here is a photo of the west end of the Grand Canyon from the time in the 1940's when the snow fell and the water flowed freely and the Bureau of Reclamation filled Lake Mead, Hoover Dam's reservoir. Courtesy of Mrill Ingram and John Weisheit, who collected this gem of a report.
Note the lighter turbid river water reaching right close to river mile 277.
The photo appears in a report printed 1960:
That is the reservoir, and deep beneath its surface water, out in the middle, is river mile 277, a human-determined place used to define the Grand Canyon's exit. The Grand Wash Cliffs are well-defined on the right as they lower down into the water.
Now here is a photo from our October 2025 visit. The foreground flats and white hill would have been underwater. She Who Waves Farewell is just off photo left. Because the 1940s photo is taken above and from over toward the left, changing the angle, I think that the pinkish small cliff with vertical marks here, lower down in center left, is the one up in the upper left of the older photo.
The Sanup Escarpment shows up well here, above the foreground slopes rising to become the Grand Wash Cliffs.
