Day eight, the last in an amazing series, among the most supremely exciting weeks of my entire life. We were up at dawn and broke camp very quickly, skipping our usual leisurely breakfast in favor of a quick snack. We still had thirty more miles of river, which we planned to cover non-stop, and at relatively high speed. Once we got to Pearce Ferry we’d be catching a chartered bus back to our hotel in Las Vegas, and some of us planned to fly out that night, so we were anxious to get started. Once the rafts were loaded we assembled for a group portrait, all of us gathered together in front of the boats with a gorgeous backdrop of river and steep cliffs, a wonderful memento of the trip (photo above).
What followed was a thoroughly uneventful, thoroughly anti-climactic run down the last section of the river.
Water levels were down significantly from historic highs, so as we got closer to Lake Mead, walls of unstable sediment lined the riverbanks, undercut by the water as it flowed past, creating mini-avalanches of sandy silt.
We passed the area known as Grand Canyon West, on the Hualapai reservation, and we got a good look at the <<Grand Canyon Skywalk>> from underneath:
It’s a glass bottomed walkway that juts out maybe fifty feet from the rim, giving visitors a fairly spectacular view straight down to the canyon below. That’s on the plus side. On the minus side, to get there, you have to take a three hour drive from Vegas, then 14 miles of dirt road to the concession area. There’s a fee to enter, and another fee to actually step out on the Skywalk. It’ll cost you close to eighty bucks for a two minute thrill, and they won’t let you take a camera out there (not even a phone camera). If you want a picture to commemorate your experience, their photographer will snap one for you, then he’ll charge you another thirty bucks for a print. The worst thing about it? This isn’t even the pretty part of the canyon! I can’t fault the Hualapai for trying to generate income. They’ve been pretty active in that regard, offering helicopter tours, rides in jet boats that travel up the river a ways and then back down again, giving tourists a Grand Canyon experience without the rigors of hiking or rafting through rapids. My only objection? It’s pretty dramatically overpriced for what you get, especially that crazy Skywalk, and since everything they offer is priced separately, you end up paying a small fortune.
The river broadened as we approached Lake Mead, and at mile 278 we entered the lake itself. Pearce Ferry was right there, and we were all pretty quiet as the rafts pulled in to shore for the last time. The big flatbed trucks were there and waiting to haul the boats back to Lee’s Ferry by road, where they’d be cleaned up, serviced, and re-stocked to take another group of adventurers down the mighty Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. “Thrill of a lifetime” is a pretty strong statement, but it’s appropriate for this journey. There’s nothing else like it. If you ever get the chance to do this? If what I’ve described in this blog sounds interesting to you? Make your plans, and take the trip. It’s worth every bit of minor hardship and deprivation, and every penny of the cost.
The slide show below has a few additional pictures from Day 8. Click any of the images to expand them to full screen, with captions.
(Unless otherwise noted, all of these images are my original work, and are protected by copyright. They may not be duplicated for commercial purposes.)
Two days after my own river trip, I was holed up in a hotel room near Washington D.C. It was late, almost midnight eastern time, and I was hard at work, putting the finishing touches on a hugely important presentation that had to be proofed, polished, and ready to go, first thing the next morning. When I was done with that, I couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t status reports or software test results ping-ponging about in my weary jet-lagged brain, it was visions of the Colorado River playing behind my eyes like a highlight reel, and it was so beautiful, I turned on my bedside light, and tried my best to find words to match, scribbling them down on a note pad.
The next morning, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, I stood up in front of a room full of wide-awake senior executives, all of them waiting to hear what I had to say about my big-deal project. I popped in my little thumb drive, but instead of launching the Powerpoint presentation with the fancy charts and graphs, the drive launched a slide show with some of my favorite pictures from the river, blown up big enough to fill the whole wall. I’d accidentally mixed up the thumb drives! I couldn’t very well proceed with my prepared remarks, so I pulled out that note pad that I’d scribbled on the night before, and I recited my essay, which fit the occasion to perfection.
If you’d like to read what I presented to that roomful of VIP’s, check out the last post in this series: Grand Canyon Rafting.
Read the Whole Adventure:
This is an interactive Table of Contents. Click the pictures to open the pages.
A Grand Adventure! White Water Rafting on the Colorado River
Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition: Day 1
The two rafts were shoved away from the beach until they floated free, and the boat drivers eased them into the middle of the channel. We were mostly moving with the current, but the beach dropped behind us pretty quickly, and in a matter of minutes we were out there, rafting down the Colorado River, heading squarely into the enchanted depths of the Grand Canyon...
<<CLICK to Read More!>>
Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition: Day 2
The cliffs and buttes were a perfect composition, the different colored layers of stone were all but glowing in the afternoon light, and we had this incredible world all to ourselves, not another boat in sight.
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Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition: Day 3
The waters of the Little Colorado are a turquoise blue that is so startlingly bright it doesn't even look real. There’s a well-defined spot where that warm, turquoise blue water from the small river collides with the cold, deep green water flowing upstream from the big river. The two dramatically different colors mix, forming a shifting, swirling line of chartreuse. That spot is the confluence. It's magical, and utterly unique.
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Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition: Day 4
I was still a little dazed by the whole thing, scenes of frothing, churning whitewater playing over and over in my head. Fleecy white clouds were piling up above the canyon rim, nearly filling the narrow patch of sky, until the lowering sun set them afire, a Grand Canyon sunset display that was the finest we’d seen, worthy of the spectacular setting. A fitting end to one of the most amazing days of my life.
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Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition: Day 5
The trail meandered for a mile or so, finally dropping down level with the creek, giving us access to a series of perfect swimming holes. There’s something about that exotic turquoise water that welcomes swimmers--you have to get in it, if only to assure yourself that it’s real. The creek was cool, but far from cold, and a welcome change from the icy water in the river. We stopped at a particularly inviting spot to swim, relax, and eat our lunch. Sitting beside that creek, with our simple repast--it was like having a picnic in the Garden of Eden.
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Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition: Day 6
“Two Hander!” John called out rather gleefully, and we all clung to the ropes for dear life as the raft picked up speed. We were headed straight for the boil of Lava Falls, which was roaring like a freight train, bearing down. We entered the churning whitewater pretty much dead center, then moved hard to the right to avoid the standing waves and the big holes in the middle of the channel. We got good and drenched at least three times, almost like running under a series of waterfalls, bucking and lurching like crazy, but the whole thing was over in less than a minute.
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Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition: Day 7
Immediately below that beach we hit Diamond Creek Rapid, then Travertine Rapid, where we pulled over to the bank at Travertine Canyon. The creek that entered the river here flowed across huge, slippery boulders in a series of small waterfalls, and we had great fun taking turns standing in the flow, almost like a natural shower.
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Grand Canyon Rafting Expedition: Day 8
The river broadened as we approached Lake Mead, and at mile 278 we entered the lake itself. Pearce Ferry was right there, and we were all pretty quiet as the rafts pulled in to shore for the last time. “Thrill of a lifetime” is a pretty strong statement, but it’s appropriate for this journey. There’s nothing else like it.
<<CLICK to Read More!>>
Grand Canyon Rafting
You find a rope, any rope, and you grab on with both hands for all you're worth. The river boils like the North Sea in a gale, great, rolling green waves and troughs. The raft plummets sideways into a hole fifteen feet deep, the outboard motor shrieks, a monster wave towering ten feet above your head comes crashing down across the deck, pummeling the passengers like a gigantic liquid fist that takes your breath away, leaving you suspended, time stopped, frozen in mid-scream.
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There's nothing like a good road trip. Whether you're flying solo or with your family, on a motorcycle or in an RV, across your state or across the country, the important thing is that you're out there, away from your town, your work, your routine, meeting new people, seeing new sights, building the best kind of memories while living your life to the fullest.
Are you a veteran road tripper who loves grand vistas, or someone who's never done it, but would love to give it a try? Either way, you should consider making the Southwestern U.S. the scene of your own next adventure.
A few years ago I wrote a book about road trips in Arizona and New Mexico that's a lot like this website, packed with interesting information, and illustrated with beautiful photographs. Check it out! You can find it on Amazon, and at all other major booksellers.
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