Buck Farm

MILE 41

We ended Day 2 at the base of Buck Farm Canyon on river right.

Grilled halibut for dinner - not locally caught, one assumes.

Marble Canyon

MILE 40

We've dropped just below the base of the Redwall now, so the canyon walls rise high and steep on both sides. If one wanted to build a dam, this would be the place to do it!

Wes recited Floyd's Void as we floated by the exploratory adits dug into the walls on each side of the canyon. I recalled re-reading the third chapter of Encounters with the Archdruid (McPhee) just before this trip. Dam literature.

Redwall Cavern

MILE 33

Redwall is one of the better know tourist attractions in the canyon and for good reason. The enormity of the cliff above it and the shape of the sand berm in it's entrance make it look deceptively small from a distance, and although Powell's estimate of 50,000 might be a bit high, it is huge. There are other big alcoves and caves in the Redwall, but this one happens to be right at river level, making it accessible and maybe helping shape it.

For D, this was the one place on the trip where the frisbee and the football could come out - too bad there wasn't one of these every day! I alternated between throwing the disk with him and listening to Greg and Rob swap canyon histories in the shade at the back of the cave. Greg was down here as a teenager during the 1983 flood, when Lake Powell threatened to overflow, and spoke of bringing the boats right into the back of the cavern and of helicopters dropping warnings to camp on high ground. Rob talked about various politicians' belated misgivings about the Glen Canyon dam (and one politician's continued desire to finish the dams that were never completed). The Marble Canyon dam (see next entry) would have made frisbee in Redwall Cavern pretty challenging.

Vasey's Paradise

MILE 32+

I think one of the reasons we were hanging out at South Canyon was to let the group in front of us finish up at Redwall Cavern. We had lunch at the beach below South Canyon, then floated past Stanton's Cave and Vasey's Paradise. The former is a large cave in which were found split-twig figurines several thousand years old and driftwood 40,000 years old (which poses an interesting geomorphic question- maybe related to those big lava dams down at Lava Falls?). Vasey's, named for a botanist friend of J.W. Powell's, is a waterfall that emerges from a spring in the Redwall.

South Canyon

MILE 32

After a brief pit stop above 29-mile rapid, we beached at South Canyon and scrambled up the cliff to the bench where there are a number of ruins and grafittied boulders. Across the river, there is a massive face of Redwall Limestone (the red staining comes from the overlying formations, the native limestone is composed of light gray and dark gray bands). Just downstream, we can see past Stanton's Cave to Vasey's Paradise.

Boulder Narrows

MILE 18.5

Just down from camp, we passed Boulder Narrows, where a large chunk of Supai sits in the middle of the river. A large piece of drift wood stranded on top reportedly predates the dam and may be a relic of the 1957 flood.

This morning, we all wore our rain gear - for a series of rapids (the Roaring 20s) in a reach of shady early morning canyon. For me, it was the only time on the trip that I wore the rain gear, although there were others who were less tolerant of the periodic cold-water rinse cycles.

18 Mile Wash Camp

MILE 18

We spent our first night at 18 Mile Ledges, on river left a short distance below House Rock Rapid. Tom and Greg collaborated on our introduction to "The Duke" - which was carefully placed out of site at one end of camp. A simple system for handwashing and assuring privacy - led to a seat with a great view of the canyon. Greg then provided a lesson in setting up the tents, although most of us opted for sleeping under the stars.

After dinner, we celebrated Rob's birthday with cake and ice cream (pretty soft - you can only keep things so cold down here). The superintendent was wearing a tux and a Harley Davidson cap.