Comanche Point (Grand Canyon)

Comanche Point is a 7,073-foot-elevation (2,156 meter) summit located in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of northern Arizona, USA.[3] Part of the Palisades of the Desert, Comanche Point is the high point on the canyon's less-visited East Rim, and is four miles north-northeast of Desert View Point, its nearest higher neighbor. Topographic relief is significant as it towers 4,400 feet (1,340 meters) above the Colorado River in 1.5 mile. Comanche Point was named in 1900 by George Wharton James for the Comanche, a Native-American nation from the Great Plains, in keeping with a practice of naming the points on the canyon's South Rim for Native American nations.[4] This geographical feature's name was officially adopted in 1906 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.[3] According to the Köppen climate classification system, Comanche Point is located in a Cold semi-arid climate zone.[5] On September 27, 1994, the tabloid Weekly World News ran an outlandish cover story that wreckage of a 4000-year-old UFO had been found in limestone rubble near the base of Comanche Point.[6]

Comanche Point
West aspect from river level
Highest point
Elevation7,073 ft (2,156 m) [1]
Prominence551 ft (168 m) [1]
Parent peakDesert View Point (7,498 ft)[2]
Isolation3.91 mi (6.29 km) [2]
Coordinates36°05′33″N 111°48′12″W [3]
Geography
Comanche Point
Location in Arizona
Comanche Point
Comanche Point (the United States)
LocationGrand Canyon National Park
Coconino County, Arizona, US
Parent rangeCoconino Plateau[1]
Colorado Plateau
Topo mapUSGS Desert View
Geology
Type of rocklimestone, sandstone, siltstone
Climbing
Easiest routeclass 2

Geology

The summit of Comanche Point is composed of Kaibab Limestone overlaying cream-colored, cliff-forming, Permian Coconino Sandstone .[7] The sandstone, which is the third-youngest of the strata in the Grand Canyon, was deposited 265 million years ago as sand dunes. Below the Coconino Sandstone is slope-forming, Permian Hermit Formation, which in turn overlays the Pennsylvanian-Permian Supai Group. Further down are strata of Mississippian Redwall Limestone, and Cambrian Tonto Group.[8] Precipitation runoff from Comanche Point drains into the nearby Colorado River.

  • From Desert View
  • West aspect
  • From Desert View
  • West aspect at sunrise
  • From Desert View
  • Comanche Point centered, as seen from Navajo Point. Desert View Watchtower upper right.
  • Comanche Point centered, as seen from Desert View during a rare total inversion
  • Aerial view of north aspect

See also

References
  1. "Comanche Point, Arizona". Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  2. "Comanche Point - 7,073' AZ". Lists of John. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  3. "Comanche Point". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  4. George Wharton James, In & Around the Grand Canyon, 1900, Little, Brown, and Company, page x (Preface).
  5. Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen−Geiger climate classification". Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 11. ISSN 1027-5606.
  6. John Annerino, 'Hiking the Grand Canyon", 2017, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 9781510714984
  7. N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917.
  8. William Kenneth Hamblin, Anatomy of the Grand Canyon: Panoramas of the Canyon's Geology, 2008, Grand Canyon Association Publisher, ISBN 9781934656013.
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