The Grand Canyon - Part 1

This post is going to be less about words and more about photos.
If you don't care at all about the words, click on any photo and you can
just arrow through them and you don't even have to block out the words!

The Gypsy Wagon - On our way to Flagstaff

The Ceiba truck with ALL the gear

Our first hike

(I think . . . and I can't remember the name!) 

Da beach. Isn't the desert neat?!

Halloween!

Drinkin' straight from the bag! 

Flying the airplane

Redwall Cavern!!!!

This place was SO AMAZING! It's difficult to tell the actual size of the cavern,

but it was huge. We played kickball here ALL DAY LONG and laughed and

laughed and laughed! To give you an idea, we set up a kickball field INSIDE 

the cavern and even the kicks that popped straight up never hit the ceiling. 

Looking out from inside Redwall Cavern.

The airplane and the puffy-sleeved prom queen

 (Photo credit to Henry)

Heading up Saddle. (I think)

I thought this place was really neat because it was the 

first little 'oasis' we saw on the trip and I was so surprised

to see all the green vegetation, and even a few wildflowers! 

(Photo credit to Kate)

Saddle.

(Photo credit to Kate)

Saddle.

 (Photo credit to Kate)

 

More Saddle.

  

                                   Sheela n' Me!                                          Janna & Mary

 

Oh this was cool! We stopped to scout a rapid before we ran it and 

there was a group getting ready to run it ahead of us, so we got to

watch them, but his curious ram wanted to check us out! 

(Photo credit to Henry)

 

I'm not sure if it's the same ram, but this was a nice photo!

 (Photo credit to Orion)

The next couple of photos are from one of my favorite stops - Nankoweap. 

This is the site of ancient Anasazi granaries. The ancient people would store their

summer grain crop in these 'cupboards' to protect it through the winter.

The view from the granaries was probably in my top 5 favorite parts of the trip.

Nice rocks, eh?

Hangin' at the granary.

The granary door with Sheela and a 

delicious IPA for scale.  

The next area, the confluence of the Colorado and the Little Colorado

Rivers, is a magical place. It's no wonder that visitors are only allowed

to hike in about a half mile. Everything beyond that is sacred land to

the Navaho Nation (I think it's Navaho land, but don't quote me!)

The Confluence.

The rock type, which is limestone if I remember correctly,

gives the Little Colorado the milky look to it. 

 Heading up the Little Colorado.

Sheela and a little salt column.

Geology is neat!

But I have no idea what this is called.

 

Cute little critter prints.

Nothing for scale, but the little prints on the left

aren't much bigger than a quarter (each).

 

To be continued . . . . 

The Grand Canyon - Part 2

At one point, sometime during the first half of the trip,

a little patch job was necessary on Clifford the Big Red Boat.

Fortunately it held!

(Photo credit to Andy)

I don't remember the name of this hike either, but I thought it was REALLY cool! 
It's hard to tell the magnitude of this cool spot, but to get here, 
you had to climb up a really sketchy rock deposit from a flash flood,
and when you come over the top, you enter into this 'great room'. But the
hike doesn't stop there! We kept walking up the canyon until we got kind of up to 
a 'ledge' on the rim, which kind of felt like being on the moon.

(You can see some people in the bottom left corner for scale.)

That's the rim waaaaaaay back there.

The colors were really beautiful up here. 
The picture doesn't quite do it justice. 

Rockin' the Schmidt beer hat.

Some cool fluting in the rocks with Sheela for scale.

We had to stop at Phantom Ranch for a few hours because our
beloved Sharon of the North had to hike out, but her placeholders, 
Ross and Kirsa, were an AWESOME addition to the team.

Posting some 'mule-mail'!

The pack train heading up to the rim!

(Photo credit to Kate)

And then we flipped a boat in Horn Creek Rapid.
Yes, I was on that boat. You don't see me helping flip it because we were passing the bottle 
of whiskey around as a kind of 'celebration' that everyone was A-ok and we still had all of our gear! 
Orion, Andy, Gonzo, and Ben - in the Danger Zone on the boat flipping crew!

(Photo cred to Kate again! Thanks for taking a photo! 
My camera was on the underside of that boat.)

Because we had the best trip leader in the history of trip leaders, we got to see 
cool stuff like this - old oars stashed underneath a rock way above the river
from an early 1900s expedition down the Grand Canyon!

(Kate's photo)

Elves Chasm:
This place was awesome! I kept thinking we should stumble upon
a fairy community at any minute along the hike!
You can hike up under the rocks and end up above the 
pool and you jump out into the beautiful elves' pool!

All the Chiquitas

(Elves photos - credit to Kate n' Andy)

Blacktail Canyon
This was a really cool campground with a really magical 
canyon that was right near camp. The acoustics at the 
end of the canyon were awesome, so our musical companions
performed a little concert for us.

(Andy's photo)

The end of Blacktail.

Exploring Blacktail Canyon with Sheela.

I can't remember the name of this next hike, but I do remember
it was a pretty long one and the geology was AWESOME!

Awesome conglomerate on top of horizontally bedded sandstone!

Mudcracks with Sheela for scale!

 Pretty colored shale.

Fossilized worm burrows.
(Skolithos)

Continued in part 3 . . . .

The Grand Canyon - Part 3

The Dollhouse - This was an awesome hunk of granite that had 
been carved out during periods of high water flow for millions 
of years into a perfect natural jungle gym for boaters!

 We played at the Dollhouse before we scouted 
this rapid - I think it's called Bedrock?

The water is rising!
We knew the water was going to be getting really high, so 
we were anxiously awaiting! We noticed the water start to turn 
from green to brown so we pulled over and set up camp for the night!
We all climbed up on a rock at the edge of camp and just watched the
water come up! It went from 9-13,000 cfs up to over 37,000 cfs!!!!

Now the water is brown instead of the lovely green it had been
during the first half of the trip. No more showers in the river!

After it got dark, the river rising entertainment was over,
so we learned how to play Mafia!

(Henry's photo)

Deer Creek:
This hike was one of my top favorites of the whole hike!

A lil' reptile of some sort!

There is a little hole in the rocks, a 'mailbox', where
people leave treasures for their friends who are following
on a trip coming down river after. 

Deer Creek Falls

The trail follows the edge of the slot canyon.
See the person on the bottom left? 

And then you get here! This is The Patio.

Mermaid pools at the Patio.

 This was THE BEST hang out spot! It was hard to leave it.
We spent most of a day here. I think we only floated a mile this day.

Our super duper trip leader of the century took us to this secret
spot one evening. This bowl is tucked away in the perfect spot
to protect it. There is a thought that it was perhaps moved here
by the Park Service, but there is also a chance that it was just left 
here to live out eternity.

Matkatamiba (Matkat for short):

This was another AWESOME hike! It was a shortie.
You had to walk right up the creek through the canyon to get to
the open area . . . where you can make a butt dam!!!

The approach was kind of hard in the high water! 
It was a pretty tight squeeze!

Enjoying the scenery!

Looking back down the creek that we walked up.

The 'Matkat Patio'

The Butt Dam!!!
We all sat down in the stream of water and clogged it, and then 
on the count of three, jumped up and watch it 'flash flood' the little
community that Meredith built below us! Cheap entertainment. 

(Mary's disposable camera photo!)

National Canyon:
This was another short, but REALLY cool hike!

We came to a spot on this hike that wasn't passable without ropes if you weren't 
skilled in rock climbing, soa few of us ended up just hanging out and playing 
in the creek. We tossed Sheela in and watched her go around and 
around and around in this 'infinite eddy.' Again, cheap entertainment. 

LAVA FALLS!!!!

The mac daddy of whitewater on the Grand Canyon - 
ESPECIALLY at 37,500 CFS!

Scouting the rapid and watching the group ahead run it.
It was pretty cool to watch another group run the rapid like
a rubber ducky getting flushed down the toilet!

Our scared faces before we hopped in the boats!

Pictographs

Lava Falls is near the end of the trip, so after we passed it,
it was smooth sailing until the take out. We enjoyed the last
of our river time and tried as hard as we could to finish our beer supply!

One final 16-shotgun salute to the river gods at the take-out.

(Another one of Mary's fabulous disposable camera photos!)

The road out from Diamond Creek. It's actually a creek bed.

Getting the Subaru packed with gear from 5 people for 21 days!

Packed and ready for 20 hours on the road crammed in

this Subaru! Good thing we all got showers before we hit the road!

Until next time, Grand Canyon . . . . . .