This view is looking south across the footbridge over the Colorado River for the South Kaibab Trail. Some of the switchbacks between the Tipoff (at the top of the Inner Gorge) and the tunnel by the bridge are visible on the slope. Precambrian-age crystalline basement rocks (schist and granite of Early Proterozoic age) are exposed in the lower cliffs below Precambrian-age sedimentary rocks of the Bass Formation (limestone), Hakatai Shale (red shale), and Shinumo Quartzite (metasandstone). A small outcrop of Cambrian-age Tapeats Sandstone is visible at the highest point on the canyon rim. Throughout this area the rocks display displacement along several faults (Beus, 1990; Billingsley, 2000). |