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.

House Rock Rapid

MILE 17

The river gets pushed against the left wall by debris at the mouth of House Rock Creek, which enters from river right, and there is a lot of water and some big holes near the bottom on the left.

Pretty much all the rapids in the Canyon occur where stream mouths and side canyons have deposited debris at their mouths during flash floods. Before they plugged Glen Canyon, big floods on the Colorado would occasionally clean these little rock piles out, but since 1963, the system has sort of stagnated. The big experimental floods that they are now using to try to rebuild the sand bars may not be enough to really clean the plaque out of the arteries.

Ten Mile Rock

MILE 10

A large chunk of Coconino Sandstone, planted on its edge in the middle of the river, prompting visions of a wild ride and a big splash.

We got a few minutes of rain 10 minutes upstream. Although rain clouds occasionally threatened (early monsoon this year?), the only other drops we got on the trip were at the camp below Kanab Creek on Day 10.

Most of the rocks in Marble Canyon are pretty much horizontal, so when they look tilted it is either because they toppled, or because they were deposited as cross-beds in ancient dunes or rivers.

Navajo Bridges

MILE 4.5

The canyon immediately starts rising as we skirt the riffle at the mouth of the Paria (river right) and leave the Mesozoic behind (and above). Within an hour or so we pass under the Navajo Bridges, and then left them behind, too. We will see occasional raft trips over the next few days, but the next real structures would be the pedestrian suspension bridges at Bright Angel almost a week later -- other than 800-year old ruins and a distant view of the tower at Desert View.

Two weeks later, on our way back from the North Rim, D and I would walk out onto the bridge at night and peer into the canyon.

Lee's Ferry

MILE 0

We met at 6 for breakfast and were on the road by 7. After a brief stop to pick up Rachel at Canyoneers' offices, we headed north on US 89 past Sunset Crater, the Sacred Mountain Trading Post, and Gray Mountain, retracing the steps of George W. Hayduke several decades earlier, before he joined Seldom Seen, Bonnie, and the Doc on that fateful river trip. We crossed the Little Colorado at Cameron (we'd see it again, 15 miles downstream at its mouth, four days later) and crossing the Colorado at Navajo Bridge (which we'd float beneath two hours later and which we'd walk across in the dark two weeks later).

We arrived at Lee's Ferry around 10:30am and wasted little time getting on the river. Our boats include the Sandra (a restored 15' wooden cataract boat), four 18' inflatable Avon rafts with oar/cargo rigs, and a 30' "C-Craft" motor support boat.

Greg, our trip leader, traces his ancestry and his wooden boat to his grandfather, Norm Nevills, and to river rafting in the 1940s. Tom, a Grand Canyon doctor, who rows one of the rafts, is an expert on hiking in the canyon and has written a book about everyone who has died on and below the rim (a useful resource on a 14 day river trip). John, Wes, and Jamie row the other rafts. Amity drives the big boat and Rachel rides with her.

Passengers include three teenagers, including mine, and a baker's dozen of middle-aged canyon junkies, including a law professor, a past superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, and a retired Air Force general. Remarkably, all are from Arizona except for us and the family from Kentucky.

The river, still fresh from the bottom of Lake Powell, is cold and clear. The weather is overcast and pleasantly mild.