Marian Hill is awesome!

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Grand canyon rafting — day 6

The Hike out. 8.6 miles horizontally, 1 mile vertically, 108 degrees in the sun (which most of the way is). We are each carrying about 25 pounds gear and water.

View from camp in the, early, morning light.

Leaving the boats behind.

We’ve come a long way.

 

We made it!

Total hike time: 7 hours. Not bad.

Grand canyon rafting — day 5

Day 5 is the biggest rapids day yet. They come one right after another for an action packed day.

View from our campsite in the morning light.

Scouting Hance Rapid, the most technical one we will encounter.

Elliot in the final campsite of our trip.

We transition from sedimentary rock to metamorphic and igneous as the river descends past the great unconformity.

Penne and meat balls for dinner. Carb loading for the big hike out tomorrow.

Beautiful starry sky again tonight.

Grand canyon rafting – day 4

Day 4 we hit some good rapids and hiked up a beautiful slot canyon.

 

It’s a little blurry but it’s the best i have.

Wild life.

Elliot riding the bull and getting blasted with a water gun.

 

Elliot next to the little colorado river.

The little colorado was very silty and cinnamon colored. The silt is very fine and slick.

Tuna steaks with rice pilaf and squash for dinner tonight, and it was delicious.

The weather looks very monsoony so Elliot and i sleep in ledges in the cliff wall.

Fewer pictures today because the camera battery is running low and i am conserving.

Grand canyon rafting — day 3

Day 3 is a float day. No rapids to speak of. Still, it turned out to be my favorite day of the trip.

Morning light on the canyon walls.

Panorama of our campsite. You can see the kitchen and hangout areas in the lower middle

 

 

Morning light on the canyon walls.

Vasey’s Paradise.

 

Redwall cavern.

We stopped at redwall cavern and played horseshoes, bocce ball and frisbee. We also saw some great fossils.

View from redwall cavernt.

Lunch is under that umbrella.

After lunch we all hitched our boats to Tom’s oar (cargo) boat and listened to Megan give a beautiful concert on the river.

Megan gives a concert on the water while Tom tows all the boats.

Elliot steering the caboose of the concert boat train.

At camp we hiked up to the top of the inner canyon rim. It was a pretty serious hike but the views are well worth it.

Me dangling my feet over the edge of the inner canyon. It was a long hike up and an even longer one down.

Robert and i on the top of the inner canyon rim.

Wild life.

Carnitas for dinner tonight. They were spectacular, per usual.

We slept under the stars and, for the first time on the trip, there really were stars. So many stars.