More Grand Canyon! — Lisa's (& Steve's) Travels

For those who are wondering just what it was like to spend 16 days/15 nights rafting and camping — the operative word was SAND. We were amazed at how much and how fine it was. And how it got into everything (“in all the wrong places” as one of our fellow rafters put it). There was one camp where really strong winds kept blowing all night, and even with all our flaps zipped and the fly tarp over the tent, we still woke up covered in a fine layer of dust. That was gross; and gritty. That was our worst camp, and so all others compared favorably to it - even the one called “Terraces” which was an area of large flat rock terraces above the river (that was pretty hard sleeping!). Other than those two camps, all the others were large areas of sand and rock bars (with trees or bushes) where there were plenty of flat areas to set up tents, and even spaced relatively far apart for some privacy.

A great comment made by our trip leader at the beginning: “there’s little privacy on the river, but you can give each other a lot of privacy”. This was most evident at “pit stops” along the way. The motto is “the solution to pollution is dilution”, so we were all expected to pee in the river. As you can imagine, this is much easier for guys than gals. The guys would head toward one end of a beach and turn their backs on the boats, and the gals would go the other direction, and squat behind/beside the rafts.

Enough with the details! Where are the pictures?

In the picture above, check out the veins of pink granite in the darker schist. Also, the little man on the river bank was one of the few other people/groups we saw during our trip. Interestingly, we gave a ride across the river to a pair of hikers. In another camp, two men appeared suddenly, walked through our area to the river, waded in it, and turned around and walked back off toward the rim they came from.