The Great Grand Canyon Expedition

Day 1- We rose very early; 4:00 am to be exact because we were to meet our shuttle at 4:45am that would take us from the hotel to the airport for our charter flight to Marble Canyon. It was about a 30 minute ride to Boulder City. We were weighed and assigned seats. The flight was about an hour. Beautiful landscapes, the Hoover Dam, and Lake Mead were amoung the many sights.






Once we landed, we had a brief introduction from our guides- Jake, Riley, Trevor and Micaela,  and a snack. 27 people in our group. Hopped in the van for the short ride to Lees Ferry. All trips in the canyon start here. It is mile zero. We divided our belongings into our dry bags and loaded the 2 rafts. We were on the water by about 9:30 am.

We are off! One of our first sights was the Navajo Bridges. A pair of bridges- one for cars, the other for people. We saw a pair of California Condors. They are huge, magnificent birds. We rafted through some "ripples". A bit of a splash- the rapids are coming.


Some more rafting and then it was time for lunch. Lunch was always a Deli-style meal. Simple, no plates, just hands. They were tasty and filling. If you went hungry, it was your own fault.
On Day 1, we went through Badger Creek Rapid, Soap Creek Rapid, 13 Mile Rapid, North Canyon Rapid, and 23 Mile Rapid. We entered an area called the "Roaring Twenties" where there is a rapid every 1/2 mile. We did go through one big rapid and got pretty wet. It was our first exciting rapid.
The water felt good and you dried off very quickly. We stopped to make camp at Lone Cedar, mile 23.5 We had our first sighting of the Desert Big Horn Sheep.






Every day when we stopped to set up camp, we formed the zipper line to unload both rafts. There was a lot of gear. Then everyone had to find their sleeping area, set-up a cot, cool-off by dipping into the water and later changing out of the wet clothing. We hung around and talked, and waited for dinner. No tents needed. No bugs. Sleeping under the stars was a new experience.



If you are wondering about bathroom facilities- liquid goes in the river. The solution to pollution is dilution. You can either go into the river or use the handy blue buckets. For other needs, a toilet was set up in a very scenic area, so you could "go with a view". 

Our first night dinner was Salmon, wild rice, broccoli and salad and dessert. Went to bed early and had beautiful views of the stars and Milky Way.

Comments

  1. UnknownJune 22, 2018 at 2:33 PM

    Lots of great formations throughout. Absolutely spectacular. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete

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