The man who first led an expedition along the river responsible for one of nature’s most magnificent works offers a perfect description of the Grand Canyon –

The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail.

jOHN WESLEY POWELL

I just finished reading Kevin Fedarko’s The Emerald Mile, a book about a trio of river runners who established a speed record for rowing the entire 277 miles of the Grand Canyon.  They were helped by near catastrophic releases of water from Glen Canyon Dam – release costing the Bureau of Reclamation over $32 million to repair spillway tunnels extensively damaged due to cavitation which literally ripped apart the insides of the tunnels.

RAFTING THE CANYON

You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths.

JOHN WESLEY POWELL

I have read 16,000 – other sources report 25,000 – people get on some form of watercraft and cruise part or all of the canyon each year.  Tour boats consist of oared rafts; rafts powered by everyone’s paddles; monster rafts tied together powered by outboard motors; and wooden dories – like the Emerald Mile.  Private boating groups usually use either rafts and/or kayaks.  Everyday, from the put-in point at Lee’s Ferry, a few miles downriver from Glen Canyon Dam, five outfitted groups take off and one private group.  The goal of the National Park Service is to limit the river to 150 people a day.

The outfitted trips take two to three weeks to go the whole canyon, though with many companies, a shorter trip is possible, but it entails walking down – or up -from South or North Rim to the river by Phantom Ranch.  The trip is split then into something like a 9-day trip or a 6-day one.

To privately float the river is possible, but the big problem here is you put your name in the ring.  You, then wait about a decade before your turn comes up, so popular the Grand Canyon float is.  There are also lots of regulations concerning how long you can be on the river, where to camp, how to camp, etc..

ENTER MOKI MAC

I do not have a raft, so I joined on with one of the river company trips.  A Grand Canyon float trip is said to be on the “bucket list” for many people.  I was intrigued by the unique viewpoint the river gives one of the magnificence of the canyon.  An oar-powered trip offered by a company called Moki Mac River Runners fit my time schedule as I signed up for a 14-day trip. Moki Mac was sold to Arizona Raft Adventures in 2015.

PREVIOUSLY ON THE GRAND CANYON …

Before the river trip, I ventured along the South Rim as 90% of visitors to Grand Canyon do.  Since that trip, I have also been to the North Rim – much more magnificent (saying a lot because the South Rim is spectacular) – and visiting from atop both sides give you an even better perspective from the river.

FLOATING ON THE “FRETFUL RIVER“

Our boats, tied to a common stake, chafe each other as they are tossed by the fretful river.

JOHN WESLEY POWELL

So, what is a float trip like?   It is actually pretty neat.  A lot of people do multiple trips, though the cost can come into play being the equivalent of a decent cruise ship holiday without the luxuries.  You camp out for 2-3 weeks each night, usually putting up and taking down your own tent.  Food varies by company – Moki Mac guides cooked up reasonably simple but filling food.  Alcohol is not included, though you can bring your own.  I have done a lot of backpacking, but this trip is still the longest I have been out at one stretch.

cold water!

The water is cold, the result of Glen Canyon Dam.  Only in the occasions of an abnormally wet year – The Emerald Mile presents the extreme case – does water from Lake Powell behind the dam release through anything other than the powerhouses at the bottom of the dam.  The water comes out in the 40-degree range (F) and remains in the 50-degree range through canyon.  It might be 100+F in the air, but the water is still cold.  Neoprene boots are a godsend.  If the float trip has inflatable kayaks for your use, more neoprene!  The problem with wearing neoprene for two weeks is skin rashes.  Take along some baby powder and your skin will thank you.

let’s not forget the wildlife

RAPID RATINGS

There is something like 160+ ripples and rapids – 80 considered to be considerable – you go over along the way.  Many are small affairs, but there are always a couple in a day more substantial possibly requiring a pull-out and scouting expedition before heading through. 

The Grand Canyon has its own unique rating scale for rapids based from 0-10 instead of the more usual I-VI ratings given to whitewater.  Crystal and Lava Falls would equate to Class V with a few others included depending upon water flow conditions – i.e., Hance, Granite.  People have died on many of the rapids, though many of the deaths occurred before Glen Canyon Dam.  It is still common for one or more people to pop out of a raft at some point along the way, especially if someone volunteers for an inflatable kayak run through a rapid.

HALFWAY POINT

If you opt for one of the shorter raft trips, you will hike up or down the Bright Angel or Kaibab Trails to the top of the South Rim from Phantom Ranch.  The Bright Angel covers 9.3 miles and entails 4,730 vertical feet in elevation.  Mules use this trail, so you get to deal with them, as well.  The South Kaibab takes in 7.8 miles with 4780 vertical feet involved. It is a bit steeper, but following a ridgeline, provides a bit drama in panoramic views.  Each trail is tough going up or down. 

We had one couple from New York State unused to hiking or the outdoors.  They joined us at Phantom Ranch.  So fatigued after hiking down the trail, we literally had to grab them before they collapsed into the river when they reached our rafts below.

DAY HIKES

nankoweap

There are several options for day hikes along the river taking in Anasazi ruins, desert waterfalls and plenty of side canyon action.  

thunder river to …

The longest is the hike up Thunder River to a magnificent waterfall coming straight out of the canyon walls on the side of Tapeats Canyon, around the 134-mile mark of the canyon.  From there, you hike up over a pass and across Surprise Valley.  The return to the river is down the Deer Creek Trail giving you glimpses into the narrow slot canyon below.  Your finish is the bottom of Deer Creek Falls – 200+ feet, where cool down is in order.  The day hike covers about seven miles and gaining about 2,000 vertical feet.

… deer creek

The Thunder River-Deer Creek area is the also the goal of one of the best backpacking trips in the Canyon but here you get the best day hiking without the extra 2,600 or 3,600 extra vertical feet needed by backpackers to drop down from the North Rim and go back up again.

ROCKS OF ALL AGES

The landscape everywhere, away from the river, is of rock – cliffs of rock; plateaus of rock; terraces of rock; crags of rock – ten thousand strangely carved forms.

JOHN WESLEY POWELL

Geology is on constant display and ever-changing as you descend through the Canyon.  From the red stones of Marble Canyon to the Grand Canyon Conglomerates and Vishnu Schist of the inner Granite Canyon, millions of years – billions, in the case of the Vishnu – laid out for you in layers.  Fossils found relate the lives eons ago, most notably at Nautiloid Camp in the heart of Marble Canyon where yard-long nautiloid fossils hide.  Fossil Canyon at mile 125, another historic area where ancient animal life was uncovered.

SWIMMING WITHOUT NEOPRENE

As related earlier, swimming in the Colorado is a bit jolting because of the cold temperature.  Two places along the river trip featuring areas where swimming is more enjoyable are at mile 61.5 where the Little Colorado River joins its big brother.  The other is to hike up Havasu Creek to Beaver Falls – about five miles round trip.

Water in the Little Colorado feels like bath water compared to its sibling.  The turquoise silt-laden waters provide a wonderful ride.  Just put on a life jacket, walk up a way and jump in!

havasu creek

Havasu Creek is another gorgeous turquoise creek melding into the Colorado about eight river miles before Lava Falls.  The mix of waters deep in the Inner Canyon is natural art supreme.

The Havasu Creek route ends here along the river, steep cliffs rising straight up all around.  Canyon within a canyon.  The trail eventually reaches up to the South Rim passing through the heart of the Havasupai Reservation.  We walked a couple miles upstream through the narrow Havasu slot canyon to the lowest of several spectacular waterfalls – Beaver Falls.  Like on the Little Colorado, the water of Havasu Creek feels like bath water compared to the frigid Colorado.

YOU ARE NOT THE FIRST – john wesley powell

History of those coming before are touched upon as you make your way down through the Canyon.  There are Anasazi ruins in the eastern sections of the Canyon – Nankoweap and Unkar.  They were not here for long before long-term drought drove them off to the mesas to the southeast, the land of the Hopi, today. Pictographs decorate a cave far to the west near Mile 188.

Then, of course, the 1869 journey of the one-armed John Wesley Powell (he lost his right arm from the Battle of Shiloh in the American Civil War) brought the canyon to life for Eastern seaboard newspaper readers. His journey was amazing in endurance in the face of ignorance.

and later …

Some of the names along the way relate to events when explorers made their way down the roaring river.  President Harding Rapids – Mile 43, the US Geologic Survey of 1923 was here when they heard of the death of Warren Harding. 

Hance Rapids – Mile 77, John Hance was one of the more colorful characters among a truly flamboyant mix.  Theodore Roosevelt laughingly described Hance as “the greatest liar on earth”. 

Just before Mile 108, up above the river sits a metal boat, the Ross Wheeler.  The boat left behind in 1915 by a group of men hoping to make a movie version of passing through the Grand.  They finally gave up here, lifting their little boat up off the river.  Most of the film and photos were lost in the myriad of rapids which sank or flipped the various boats they used.

Mile 240 is where Separation Canyon comes down from the North Rim.  Here 28 August 1869, three members of John Wesley Powell’s initial voyage down the Grand Canyon left the group not realizing their journey through the Canyon was almost over.  The three were never seen again.

WHITEWATER CHALLENGES

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not … Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.

jOHN WESLEY pOWELL

Of course, any trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon is about the rapids.  Crystal has the reputation of being the meanest.  Though the heavy dam releases of 1983 tamed the worst features, this is still serious.  Granite, Hance, and Lava Falls are three others imprinted upon my mind.  Granite had the highest waves in my dimming memories, but it was always sobering to pull up above a rapid and scout a possible way through the maelstrom.

On a raft, the most exciting place to be is on the bow.  Here, you are face-to-face with ten foot+ waves.  You will get wet.  Neoprene!  Normally, after a rapid, the river quiets down for a mile or more.  You are in a deep canyon where it can be hard to dry out for the next rapid.  As a result, you can get quite cold, despite the warm or hot air temperature.  Pick the rapids you want to be in front for and let others share the experience on the others.

POSTSCRIPT

We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.

JOHN WESLEY POWELL

NOTE: Please forgive the quality of the photos. They predate the trusty iPhone and GoPro action cameras by a few years – even a year or so before I bought my first digital. It is difficult to have a camera out when going through a rapid. Your old camera, not being waterproof, was stored away in a personal ammo can during the heavy hitting action. The action cameras make it much easier to capture the moment. Then there are 360 cameras now, but no drones, however. They are not allowed in the Park. Of course, by simply going from film to digital you capture so much more since you are not worried by developing costs. Click away!

I guess I will have to go on another rafting trip to update the pictures. The other problem is the cost of a trip seems to have escalated!