Spencer Creek

MILE 246

Our last night on the river was spent at the mouth of Spencer Creek. When John Wesley Powell ran the river in 1869, Lava Cliffs rapid was one of the more daunting ones they faced and it was right below here. But Lava Cliffs is now 40' (?) below the river, buried in sand. Maybe someday it will come back.

We passed along gifts - stones, driftwood - and shared some thoughts and some stories. Tomorrow, we have a lot of miles to cover, but it's basically the home stretch. The only mystery that remains is the rapidly evolving rapid at Pearce Ferry.

Bridge Canyon

MILE 237

We had lunch at Travertine Falls (just a mile downstream from Travertine Canyon), where we crowded into what little shade we could find. It's definitely getting hot at this end of the canyon.

Devon and I are riding Sandra today. This section of the Lower Granite Gorge is steep and narrow and straight and it was fun to be hanging out over the front of Greg's boat, which is leading the flotilla this afternoon as we run the nice set of rapids in the 230s (river miles, not temperatures). There was a great blue heron that kept one step ahead of us through this whole section.

For much of the last 50 years, Gneiss Canyon Rapid has been under the still waters of lake Mead, but with the lake falling, it has now re-emerged. Unfortunately, the other rapids that Lake Mead flooded are buried in silt and sand and we will see no signs of them. Although the river is flowing in this last section, it is not flowing fast and rowing would be slow and painful, so once we got past Gneiss, we tied all the rafts together around Big Mona (the motor rig) and traveled under outboard power.

We're starting to see mudlines along the sides of the canyon - the bathtub ring from half a century of reservoir. Bridge Canyon, level with the top of Hoover Dam and therefore where Lake Mead runs out is, not coincidentally, where they planned the next in the originally proposed series of dams.

Travertine Canyon

MILE 229

We waited upstream for 30 minutes or so, waiting for the group ahead of us to begin to clear out. Diamond Creek, back at Mile 226, is a traditional place for many trips to take out, but it is also the starting point for Hualapai-led trips on the lower river. Our stop at Granite Springs and our stalling here were both intended to let these larger groups move on through.

This was a great site and worth the hot wait. There's a fun climb, assisted by ropes and ladders, up to the grotto, where we took advantage of both the shade and the waterfall.

Granite Spring Rapid

MILE 221

I am just making a stab at this location, but based on the maps and the river guide, I think this is correct. This beach on river right seemed to be a strange attractor of river debris - both natural and anthropogenic. I think we stopped in part to pick up garbage and in part to look for valuable artifacts - like sunglasses lost 100 miles upstream or still-sealed cans of beer. Rob used the stop to take detail shots of the Sandra for his next wood carving project.

Just downstream, Diamond Peak comes into view.

Opposite Three Springs Camp

MILE 216

This was a nice little camp just across and down the river from Three Springs Canyon, where we just were. We could look back across the river at the rapids along the base of the Tapeats cliffs. I particularly liked that the cliffs were in the sun, but that our camp was in the shade.