Cliffs or Slopes NW of the North Rim

[Jim]

Yesterday when I was on the summit of Humphrey enjoying the view for a while I noticed some cliffs northwest of the North Rim of the Canyon. I have seen them many times before but never really thought much about them. They have been standing out very well in the clear winter air lately and I have started to wonder what and where they are. My best guess using the HAZ map is that they are either the cliffs north of Colorado City, and just south of Zion NP, or possibly that they are cliffs or south facing slopes of a small range west of I-15 and Hurricane City, UT. They stick up pretty high and they have snow on them, so they may be the ones west of I-15, but it seems more likely that they are north of Colorado City, but those aren't that high so I have my doubts. Since I can see them, you should be able see the Peaks from them, so if you know what they are let me know. Even though southern Arizona and pretty much everything south of the Peaks was under some high clouds yesterday, far north AZ was clear and had exceptional visibility.

I'm going to look to see if I have any pictures of them.

[Jim]

http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=13912

You can see them. It was better last week with blue, clear sky behind them, but it's them. I'll bring my camera from now on and if I manage to get better images with clear sky behind the white slopes I'll post them to the hike.

[Jim]

http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/pano ... REYS-N.gif

That could have been helpful last week. Oh well. A shame the gif is only for the north half. Anyone know of a south half summit view legend?

[PaleoRob]

http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/pano ... REYS-N.gif

That could have been helpful last week. Oh well. A shame the gif is only for the north half. Anyone know of a south half summit view legend?

Hey, on a real clear day (according to that link), you should be able to see the Henrys. It shows Pennell and Hillers as visible at almost 200 miles.

[sirena]

That's a great link- and they also have panoramas for Mt. Lemmon and Brown's Peak looking North and South. http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/panoramas.html

Here's the link for South view of Humphreys: http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/pano ... REYS-S.gif

[Jim]

I've never noticed the Henry's but I guess that doesn't mean I am not seeing them. 200 miles is really pushing our modern air quality.

[Jim]

I went back again today. The snow is getting nasty, so it will probably be a while (and hopefully after a really good snow storm) before I get back up. Even though the camera loses focus and contrast over great distance, I took a few more shots and put the better ones up in my last set (1/13-see above). I put up an image of Navajo Mt. If you you look real close and pan west from Navajo on the horizon (and at the correct lower angle to bring out your monitors best contrast) you can just barely see what should be "Hillers" at 183 miles on the north panorama. I was able to see that, and "162" above Gold Hill at nearly due north in the panorama. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I may have been able to see "186" just east of Powell's Monument at 103 miles. Either way, on a good day such as today you can definitely see the Henry Mountains and Mount Hillers 183 miles away.

[PaleoRob]

Yup, sure enough - the Henrys. Nice clear day to get that shot, even if its not perfect. The fact that they're loaded with snow right now helps, I'm sure.

[Jim]

It does. I think I have been seeing them for years and have been thinking that they were steam exhaust from the Navajo Generating Station. You can see that steam from the Cholla Plant east of here, so I thought it must be the same thing. I must have a number of miss-labeled photos. Oh well.