Ever been had by a river’s guides ‘interpretation’ of the cable you see strung up across the Colorado River near Lees Ferry?!
“If you look up, you’ll see the first of a series of cables strung across the Canyon that were put in place to keep the Canyon walls together,” he says…
or “The cable you see is actually a squirrel crossing, so that the North Rim variety can safely cross the river and mate with the South Rim variety, as happened before the Canyon was formed,” he says…
UH, HUH! He got you. There are several places in Grand Canyon where you’ll see a cableway spanning the width of the Canyon. These cableways are used by the US Geological Survey (USGS) for various monitoring activities. If you look to one side of the cable, you’ll usually see a small metal cage that is used to carry researchers across the cableway and allow them to stop above the middle of the Colorado River for sample-taking. They measure things like water quality, stream flow, suspended sediment and such. A gauge on the edge of the river tells researchers the exact water level so they can see the relationship between the variables.
You’ll see bright orange markers hanging on these wires; they are in place to warn any aircraft, such as emergency helicopters, of their locations.
Photo: “Suspended Scitentists” by Justin Pressfield, U.S. Geological Survey