Huxley Terrace

Huxley Terrace is a narrow, linear mesa-like platform extending northeast from Mount Huethawali in western Grand Canyon on the South Rim;. Three landforms surround Mount Huethawali; the Darwin Plateau extends southwest ; two terraces are at the north of Huethawali, Spencer Terrace extends north-northwest, and Huxley Terrace extends northeast.
The center of Huxley Terrace is ~1.0 mile from Mount Huethawali, and ~1.0 mile northwest of the southwest end of the Grand Scenic Divide. Huxley Terrace is about 2.0 miles south of a west-flowing excursion of the Colorado River. This short excursion of the Colorado River is west of the Grand Scenic Divide with the three terraces, two major canyons/creeks, and a more minor canyon between Spencer and Huxley Terrace. This narrow minor canyon and watershed, is high-walled, and narrow,, and the Upper Copper Canyon is named the Evolution Amphitheater.

Geography/Geology

Unlike Spencer Terrace to the west, which slopes westward to Upper Garnet Canyon, Huxley Terrace is mostly flat. The highpoint of the terrace is at the northeast above a large section at 5600 ft-elevation, the prominence being 5,630 ft. A saddle occurs on the terrace, about one third of the distance northeast of Mount Huethawali, just below the 5440 ft-elevation.

Geology

Huxley Terrace is a massif of the Supai Group; specifically, it survives because of unit 4 of 4, the cliff-former, Esplanade Sandstone. Mount Huethawali is a large cliff of Coconino Sandstone upon a slope of thick Hermit Shale, both upon the Supai Group. The north terminus of Huxley Terrace, at its highpoint, has colorful dk-burnt-brick red erosion debris from the Hermit Shale. The best exposures of the cliffs of the Esplanade Sandstone are at the terraces perimeters.