In the Grand Canyon.....Part 2

As mentioned at the end of the prior post, there was a major storm that came through last evening. This morning revealed the sight of this big old tree, located right outside of our subdivision, that did not survive the onslaught. I imagine there will be news of other damage when I finally get the newspaper for today.

IN THE GRAND CANYON - PART 2

Here are the answers to the teaser picture from the last post.

First, about the color...

The Little Colorado River enters the big Colorado River at about Mile 63.

This link has a lot of very good information about the Grand Canyon along with some great photographs. Here’s what it says about the Little Colorado River:
“When the Little Colorado River is not receiving water from the upper watersheds, the entire flow comes from Sipapu , a travertine spring (1). The Hopi Indians believe this is where man emerged from the earth after passing through a succession of worlds. The water is crystal clear, very alkali and warm (about 78F). The Little Colorado’s bright turquoise color is the result of bleaching of bottom sediments due to the river’s heavy mineral load.”
(1) Travertine (definition from Webster’s Revised Dictionary)
A white concretionary form of calcium carbonate, usually hard and semicrystalline. It is deposited from the water of springs or streams holding lime in solution.
Here’s another very interesting link about an exploration of the source of this river. (Bluewater Voyage in the Little Colorado River)

Secondly, about the guy wearing the life jacket.
The rafts dock at the mouth of the Little Colorado River and we all take a little hike to an area upstream. At this point, we are all shown how to wear our life jackets so we can body raft down the Little Colorado River. They look like really big, orange diapers – very ridiculous. In fact, I think I declined to wear one. Anyway, everyone gets in the water which happens to feel wonderful when you haven’t showered for awhile. You sit down in the water holding onto the person in front of you, then you start floating downstream, gathering speed until you whoosh down a sort of chute into a pool like area. After that you do it over and over, usually by yourself. I did it a couple of times, but not being a real swimmer type of person, I got that very alkali water in my nose and eyes and decided to watch other people and take movies. Here's a picture of Merle scootin' the chute.

Here’s a picture of Merle and I in the Little Colorado River. We all hung around there for a couple of hours and then boarded our rafts and headed downstream to our next destination.

So, the guy in the picture, who by the way, was a total character, was modeling the “diaper” for us. At the end of the raft trip, as we were being airlifted by helicopter out of the canyon, he mooned us all. Yeah, he was a real class act……………..

The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon is 277 miles long and we raft about 188 of those. The total number of rapids is 160 and we do a lot of them although I'm not sure how many. Of course, there are different levels of rapid fierceness, they are rated for difficulty. Your chance of capsize in the pontoon rafts is minimal. Smaller rafts and boats are more risky, of course. The really big rapids can toss those huge pontoon rafts around, so they would obviously treat a smaller craft with less compassion. Rafting purists, of course, disdain the pontoon rafts. I can understand how they would feel that way, but it's the way that we think works best for us if we want to be in the canyon on the water. Neither one of us wants to be that risky. In addition, the small craft trips are a lot more expensive and require more vacation time since they move slower.
Other activities during the week include hiking to archaeological sites, waterfalls, up steep canyon paths and into slot canyons. There are dangers involved where a misplaced step could land you several hundred feet at the bottom of something. I'm not a fan of dying at this point and when we would have to navigate a particularly scary place, I would sit down and crab crawl gingerly to a safer point where I could stand up. I'm not ashamed to be look silly in order to stay alive.
We took our movie camera with us and got some great footage. We had to wrap it in a plastic bag and be very careful not to drop it. There were times, when we filmed right up to the point that we were going to go into a big rapid. You are supposed to be sitting down at this point and anchoring yourself by holding onto the supplied ropes, yet we managed to get a couple of good shots and still save the camera and ourselves from getting washed overboard. The huge waves that sometimes crash over you, try to suck you into the river as they recede. You have to hang on for dear life. If you do not want to "enjoy" this aspect of the rapids, then all you have to do is sit back farther on the raft and you get some splashing, but not a drenching. It's hard to get those dryer seats sometimes. Generally, whoever starts sitting there at the beginning of the trip are pretty reluctant to relinquish their seats during the week. So, since Merle and I started out in the front, that's kind of where we ended up spending most of our time.

The rafting company we go with is Diamond River Adventures. We will be making our reservations for 2008 in the next month or so.

One last pic. Here's Merle getting his toenails painted. Yeah, you get a whole new perspective on the river. It might have something to do with that large, empty bottle of booze sitting in the background....

Coming up: Hummingbirds, Praying Mantis and a Marmot