Shorewoods Photography-Boarding Group 2 Travel Blog

We woke this morning after another glorious evening sleeping under the stars and Milky Way. While we are sleeping at night, we do wake occasionally and enjoy a few moments to take in the view of the night sky before drifting back to sleep. We are beginning to know what time of the late night/early morning it is by the constellations and the position of the milky way. Early morning is now a favorite time, as we watch the stars give way to a slowly brightening sky, while we remain bathed in shadows between the Canyon walls.

Mornings at our camp have an enjoyable routine. While we are usually awake by 5 AM, we still await JP’s voice announcing “coffee’s on”! for the official start! We dress in our rafting day clothes which for the most part have dried from yesterday’s wearing, pack up our sleeping kit in our big orange pumpkin night bags, disassemble our cots, and head to the river to brush our teeth. As I stand at the edge of the river brushing my teeth in this beautiful landscape, I realize I will miss this when I go home. I don’t think brushing my teeth out in our courtyard would have the same impact as in the Grand Canyon, so I savor the moment and brush a bit longer than usual! (Visual image of my dentist saying “Yes!”).

We leave our camp at Lower Saddle at Mile 48 and raft along a calm river with reflections we have no words to describe- we have used every description the thesaurus had for brilliant and magnificent. So we will leave this here for the awe factor.

While Art was in the Bathtub of the raft yesterday, I took a turn to experience it for myself. The morning rapids were splashy and fun: the afternoon rapids were beasts! One rapid this morning was the Nankoweap Rapid at Mile 52. It is rated a 3 out of 10 for difficulty, however it has a 25′ drop! It is amazing to approach the rapids and feel like you are ready to take the first drop on a roller coaster. These rapids are roller coasters with buckets and walls of water! Here is a clip from one or our more splashy end of a rough rapid.

Our first stop today was where the Little Colorado River joins the Colorado at Mile 62. A hike along the Little Colorado gave another perspective of the Canyon.

We stopped and enjoyed lunch at a shaded beach across from Tanner Camp at Mile 68 on the river. The shade was so welcome, as the temperatures today are the hottest yet. well over 100F. The river water is very cooling, and we dunk ourselves and our hats in the river which cools us off for a bit until we are dry and ready for another cooling off.

After lunch we hiked from Tanner camp up to a plateau where there were Native American Remnants and amazing views of the Canyon and the River. It was very hot, and while we doused ourselves in the river before the hike, I think we were pretty much dry halfway up the plateau.

The afternoon brought some mighty rapids that were a treat to experience in the bathtub! There were a couple of moments where we were under water for sure, and popped back up in time to catch the next wave of water in our face!

Today, Art and I discovered that we really enjoy the the rapids and being on the river. We love the changing skyline of the rocks and cliffs. Through one section of the canyon, the towering rocks looked like city blocks in New York City: rockscapes reach up into the sky, appearing as if they had been built where they stood. The rocks begin to take on shapes, Jabba the Hutt, castles, Egyptian relief murals, and Pez Dispensers! We see faces depicted in the rocks, and if this is not where Hollywood gets their ideas, they should!

We catch the occasional glimpse of big horn sheep on the rocks, and many great blue heron along the shoreline. The blue heron fly along the surface of the water as we approach, and then fly back to their original spot once we pass.

Tonight we are camping at Neville Camp at Mile 76 on the river. It is a beautiful site, spacious and comfortable. We set our cameras up for some night sky photography, and enjoy another wonderful dinner and dessert by our 3-Star Michelin chefs, Josh and JP!

Imagine laying on your cot, and seeing this beautiful night sky. It is total dark sky here so we were actually able to see all these stars and the Milky Way without the camera.

Art and I also did some long exposure shots of the water along the shore. The color of the rock is so diverse, and beautiful. The long exposure softens the water as it laps about the rocks, creating a dreamy, misty effect.

Once the sun goes down, we find we are ready to climb onto our cots and go to sleep, well before 8 or 830. This night there were alternating warm and cool breezes. At one point I thought something brushed my hand, but it seemed it was just the sleeping bag moving in the wind…..until I saw 2 shadows romping and rolling about in the sand about 10 feet from my cot- all I could think was raccoons! Art grabbed our light and pointed it up toward the rocks, and 2 big yellow glowing eyes popped up and then disappeared! While a bit disconcerting at first, we thought, oh well, everything is safe sealed up inside our pumpkins, so let’s just go to sleep.

The next morning, we learned they were ringtail cats; cats with a raccoon tail! Their tracks were all through the camp; under our cots, between our cots! One of our fellow travelers shared one jumped on their cot during the night! An image of all of us arm in arm, walking along camp saying “Rafts and Ringtails and Reflections- Oh My!” much like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, popped in my head.

All of these wonderful rich experiences have uncovered feelings of peace and solitude, of being disconnected, and it feels innate and natural. We do not miss emails, news, TV, sirens, or any of the activities that scream for our attention outside these Grand Walls. We find ourselves being more centered in the moment, and welcome being present this way throughout the trip.

“It had nothing to do with gear or footwear or the backpacking fads or philosophies of any particular era or even with getting from point A to point B. 

It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental. It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.” 

Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail