Beautiful and Mysterious View of the Colorado River Exiting the Grand Canyon

With sunlight streaming through skies darkened from the thick  storm clouds nature paints a brilliant palette juxtaposing the rich  copper reddish colors against the deep blue hues of the river as it  passes Devils Cove and the Iceberg Reef through Iceberg Rapids and  Sunfish Cove and around Sandy Point into Lake Mead. 

As the Colorado River exits the Grand Canyon it passes through  Iceberg Canyon into Lake Mead in the Gregg Basin. Following a great  rainstorm I captured this image while flying northeast over the Gregg  Basin on my way to land and camp out at Grand Canyon Gulch. 

In Spanish: Río Colorado, means "Colored River", with an  implication of the natural reddish, muddy color the river used to have  that caused by its natural sediment loads. After multiple dams were  built to harness power and control seasonal flooding (still  controversial after many decades) the upstream silt is now filtered out  by the dams and is no longer seen as muddy or colored but instead has  acquired a clear blue-greenish hue as seen here. 

One of the principal rivers of the Southwestern United States and  northern Mexico The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) Colorado River drains an  expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two  Mexican states. With its headwaters located high up in the central Rocky  Mountains in the U.S., the river flows primarily southwest crossing the  Colorado Plateau and into the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on  the Arizona–Nevada border. Here it sharply turns south towards Mexico  where it runs through the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of  the Gulf of California between Baja, California and Sonora. 

The first humans of the Colorado River basin were likely  Paleo-Indians of the Clovis and Folsom cultures, who first arrived on  the Colorado Plateau about 12,000 years ago. Beginning with small bands  of nomadic hunter-gatherers, First Nations Tribal peoples inhabited the  Colorado River basin beginning 8,000 years ago. Between 2,000 and 1,000  years ago, the river and its tributaries fostered large agricultural  civilizations, – some of the most sophisticated indigenous cultures in  North America – which eventually faded over time. 

Another notable early group was the Fremont culture, whose peoples  inhabited the Colorado Plateau from 2,000 to 700 years ago. The Fremont  were likely the first peoples of the Colorado River basin to  domesticate crops and construct masonry dwellings; they also left behind  a large amount of rock art and petroglyphs, many of which have survived  to the present day. It is worth noting that a great deal of controversy  still exists over First Nationals Tribal water rights in the Colorado  River basin which have been routinely largely ignored during the  extensive water resources development carried out on the river and its  tributaries. Construction of dams has often had negative impacts on  First Nations peoples, such as the Chemehuevi; their riverside lands  were flooded after the completion of Parker Dam in 1938.  

 Ten Native American tribes in the basin now hold or continue to  claim  water rights to the Colorado River. There are at least 5 First  Nations  names for the Colorado River -  

1. Maricopa: Xakxwet
2. Mohave: 'Aha Kwahwat
3. Havasupai: Ha Ŧay Gʼam and Sil Gsvgov
4. Yavapai: ʼHakhwata

(Research Source)

This is from my ongoing project in which I am trying to  raise awareness of the 47% of the USA and 90% of Canada that remain unpopulated wilderness.     

Where Eagles Fly - The American Wilderness Expedition is my personal mission to introduce people to these amazing locations that surround us. 

If you like what you see here upvote then resteemit so that others   may experience these wondrous places as well.  Yehaw!!