Angels Gate is a -elevation summit located in the Grand Canyon, in Coconino County of Arizona, United States. It is situated due north of the Grandview Point overlook on the canyon's South Rim, west of Vishnu Temple, and southeast of Zoroaster Temple. Topographic relief is significant as it rises over above the Colorado River in three miles. Angels Gate is the place in Paiute mythology where the gods would return to Earth by descending from the shadow world above.George Wharton James, In & Around the Grand Canyon, 1900, Little, Brown, and Company, page 90.
George Wharton James applied the "Angel Gate" name to this geographical feature in his book, In & Around the Grand Canyon, in 1900. This feature's name was officially adopted in 1906 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names. Angels Gate has four peaks composed of Coconino Sandstone. The main highest summit and three spires are known as "Snoopy and his Doghouse" for a resemblance to Snoopy, and the first ascent was made April 1972 by Chuck Graf and Dave Ganci.National Park ServiceJohn Annerino, Adventuring in Arizona, 1991, Sierra Club Books, page 327. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Angels Gate is located in a cold semi-arid climate zone.
Geology
The summit of Angels Gate is composed of remnant, cliff-forming, Permian Coconino Sandstone.N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917, page 56. 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, Cambrian Tonto Group, and finally Proterozoic Unkar Group at creek level and Granite Gorge.N.H. Darton, Story of the Grand Canyon of Arizona, 1917. Precipitation runoff from Angels Gate drains south to the Colorado River.
Gallery
Hawkins Butte
Hawkins Butte is a -elevation butte attached at the southwest end of Angels Gate. It was officially named in 1932 after William "Billy" Robert Hawkins, the hunter and cook for John Wesley Powell's 1869 expedition down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It is primarily composed of exposed cliffs of Redwall Limestone overlaying Tonto Group.
See also Geology of the Grand Canyon area Dunn Butte
References
External links
Weather forecast: National Weather Service Angels Gate rock climbing: Mountainproject.com Photo of Billy Hawkins: NY Public Library Billy Hawkins' account of expedition: Rockhounds.com Angels Gate photo by Harvey Butchart