A bus picked us up in Vegas and drove us 4 hours to Lee's Ferry, and we were on the river by 1:00. One of the first landmarks we passed was Indian Dick. Can you spot it?
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A bus picked us up in Vegas and drove us 4 hours to Lee's Ferry, and we were on the river by 1:00. One of the first landmarks we passed was Indian Dick. Can you spot it? |
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| I took a picture of my tent every night. No two camp sites were the same, and fellow passenger Jim named them all. Of course, I've forgotten the names, but maybe this first was "Dark Camp" because we got there rather late. |
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You lose all sense of scale when you're floating down the river with these huge sandstone cliffs on either side. Redwall Cavern appeared to be just a little gouge in the wall until we got out of the raft and investigated. |
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Speaking of scale, this is our 37-foot raft parked where we had lunch on the second day. Here you can see some of the nine different layers of sandstone that were laid down millions years ago. They were forced up by plate techtonics and the river had to wear them down to find its level. Is that right, Janice? (Janice was our resident geologist, and actually knew the names of all of the layers - and a boatload more...) |
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Here's the camp on Day 2. Lots of lovely soft sand instead of the rocks of the first day. Of course, the sand gets lumpy when you actually sleep on it. Just before dinner someone spotted a beautiful pink rattlesnake near camp. This was the first camp where we had a "loo with a view." (We brought our bathroom with us - and carried all our food in and all our waste out.) |
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Well, here we are on the river on Day 3. I know it looks like a lot of the other shots, and you'd think that one would get a little blasé about seeing sights like this, but practically every bend in the river brought another ooh or ahh. |
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One of the prettier camp sites we stayed at was on Day 3. The late afternoon light (and the early morning light) were striking. |
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At this point a much older rock becomes visible. Can you spot the pink granite incursion in the Vishnu Schist? |
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This is Elves' Grotto, one of the several side trips we took during our voyage. Several hearty souls actually climbed up the rocks here and dropped into the amazingly deep pool at the bottom of the falls. |
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Although the river was running low, we did see some white water. At the beginning of the trip, many of us donned foul weather gear, but by the end we were pretty much immune to the splashes. |
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Ho hum, more magnificent vistas. This one with clouds. |
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A little rockier camp tonight. The highlight for me was spotting a 2-inch tarantula on the way to my tent. As I moved the flashlight to get a better look s/he just skittered away. The rocks you see absorbed all the heat of the day and released it at night. This was "Hell Camp." |
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On day 5 we took a little climb up the canyon following Deer Creek. This is as close as we got to the view that most visitors to the Grand Canyon see. Day 5 was September 11th. We were blissfully unaware of things happening in the "real" world. We didn't find out about things until the 14th. |
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Here is another shot that emphasizes the unreality of scale in this place. This is called the "Throne Room" because people have taken slabs of sandstone that have fallen from the wall and built grandiose chairs - and even a chess board. The source of Deer Creek is the waterfall that comes directly out of the rock. |
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Camp on Day 5. |
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We took a morning hike to Havasu Creek. Just like the canyon, this river was different around every corner - lovely little pools, some little rapids, and this little piece of Eden. |
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Is this closer to Eden? |
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More rocks and clouds. |
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Camp, Day 6. The wavers are Fred and Vivienne, two Brits who haven't lost their original accents despite decades living in Tennessee. |
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One of the few disappointments of the trip was the lack of stunning sunrises and sunsets. Because the height of walls, the sun disappears long before it sets. Nevertheless this sunrise was pretty. |
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The end of the trip brought us to more "Sonoran" desert like terrain. There were cacti at most places we stopped, but there were far more different kinds here. |
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More spectacular views. |
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Camp Day 7. This is technically Lake Mead, but it looks like the canyon, doesn't it? |
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