Last updated: August 12, 2022
Place
Gates of Lodore Trail Stop 15
NPS Photo/Conrad Provan
Quick Facts
Amenities
1 listed
Scenic View/Photo Spot
“At noon the sun shines in splendor on vermilion walls… and the canyon opens, like a beautiful portal, to a region of glory. This evening, as I write, the sun is going down and the shadows are settling in the canyon… and now it is a dark portal to a region of gloom, the gateway through which we are to enter on our voyage of exploration tomorrow, what shall we find?”
John Wesley Powell wrote these words as he camped near here on June 7, 1869, expressing the combination of excitement and fear he and his companions often felt as they made the first full length expedition down the Green River. Since most of this canyon country was still literally a blank spot on the map, Powell and his men had the opportunity to fill in the blanks with new names. Andy Hall, the youngster of the group, suggested the name of this canyon after recalling “The Cataract of Lodore” by the English poet Robert Southey: “All at once and all o’er, with a mighty uproar and this way the water comes down at Lodore.”
These lines soon proved to be appropriate, for the first large rapid below here wrecked one of the party’s four wooden boats and earned itself the name Disaster Falls. The crew salvaged what they could, and approached the later rapids more cautiously. Powell ultimately floated all the way down the Green and Colorado Rivers through the Grand Canyon.
John Wesley Powell wrote these words as he camped near here on June 7, 1869, expressing the combination of excitement and fear he and his companions often felt as they made the first full length expedition down the Green River. Since most of this canyon country was still literally a blank spot on the map, Powell and his men had the opportunity to fill in the blanks with new names. Andy Hall, the youngster of the group, suggested the name of this canyon after recalling “The Cataract of Lodore” by the English poet Robert Southey: “All at once and all o’er, with a mighty uproar and this way the water comes down at Lodore.”
These lines soon proved to be appropriate, for the first large rapid below here wrecked one of the party’s four wooden boats and earned itself the name Disaster Falls. The crew salvaged what they could, and approached the later rapids more cautiously. Powell ultimately floated all the way down the Green and Colorado Rivers through the Grand Canyon.