South Cove

MILE 297

The jet boat takes about 45 minutes to make the trip from Pearce Ferry Rapid to South Cove. Once this would all have been on the lake, but now the top section is the reformed river, running muddy through old lake bed. And as the lake continues to fall, some interesting new rapids are forming in Iceberg Canyon, which made our ride fun and probably adds some tricky wrinkles to the already complicated end-of-trip logistics for the raft companies.

We landed at a the dock at South Cove, dragged our stuff up the trail to the parking lot, and loaded it onto the trailer. There were cold pops and Subway sandwiches waiting for us and we ate them in the air conditioned van as we hit the road for the five hour trip to Flagstaff.

Pearce Ferry

MILE 280

We passed through the Grand Wash Cliffs about Mile 277 and all of a sudden the canyon is behind us and looking back it's almost hard to figure out where we had been. Pearce Ferry used to be the standard take-out on the lake for many raft trips, but with the river falling, the landing has been left high and dry. The historic Pearce Ferry, on the original pre-lake river, is now buried under 200' of sediment.

The river is now flowing across these old lake sediments and has chosen a route very different than its original course. And happens to have taken a route that flows over a long-buried ridge - leaving a sharp rapid that changes rapidly as the river continues to erode. We scouted it on the left side and then untied the boats from each other and made the run. It's a neat climax to a long stretch of slow river.

Below the rapids, we unloaded our stuff and said goodbye to the crew (they're also going to South Cove and Flagstaff today, but will take considerably longer to do so since they have rafts to de-rig and load onto the trucks) and climbed onto the jet boat for the quick trip to South Cove.

Mile 266

MILE 266

We broke camp early, since we still have lots of river to cover today. The rafts remain tied together and we motor out. Folks can move around among the boats, foraging for water and food, finding places to nap, or seeking refuge from the heat. Amity occasionally makes the rounds with the bailing bucket, pouring it over our heads or down our backs. Jamie spends 30 minutes with a flyswatter trying to track down a horsefly the size of a bat.


At mile 266, we can see Bat Cave off to the right and the tramway that once carried the bat guano up to trucks on the south rim. High on the rim to the left, we can see the Hualapai's Skywalk sticking out over the edge, sort of like a giant toilet lid.

The canyon widens out here, but what is most noticeable is the increasingly continuous sandy banks of the river - the result of the Colorado gradually eroding into the material it deposited in this part of Lake Mead when the lake was full.

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.