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Earth Sculptures #3
Like a giant shark fin had sprung from the earth Steamboat Rock towers over 1000 ft into the air.
This is actually an optical illusion because the rock itself is actually a mile long and sits like a decapitated dragon in a circular valley in Echo canyon at the confluence of the Yampa and Green Rivers, Colorado.
The explorer and professor John Wesley Powell called the monolith ‘Echo Rock’ in his 1875 account based on (his) 1869–72 exploration of the Colorado River and its tributaries which also included the first trip through the Grand Canyon by boat.
The rock became more popularly known as Steamboat Rock in 1941.
The book The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons was first published by the Smithsonian in 1875 and is a classic. [My favorite genre of literature is first witness accounts of history and exploration.]
The rock is in the Dinosaur National Monument. The park was established in 1915 to preserve its dinosaur fossils (quarry) but has since expanded to include other landscapes of interest.
Dinosaur National Monument sits on the border of Utah and Colorado with entrances from both states.
