Grand Canyon Rafting May 2004

GC Rafting
May 2004

Home
Guides
Passengers
Pre-trip
Day 1 - 5/13/04
Day 2 - 5/14/04
Day 3 - 5/15/04
Day 4 - 5/16/04
Day 5 - 5/17/04
Day 6 - 5/18/04
Day 7 - 5/19/04
Day 8 - 5/20/04
Day 9 - 5/21/04
Day 10 - 5/22/04
Day 11 - 5/23/04
Day 12 - 5/24/04
Day 13 - 5/25/04
Day 14 - 5/26/04
Day 15 - 5/27/04
Day 16 - 5/28/04
Trip dinner
Hints, tips, & links

Day 10: Saturday, May 22 2004
Dolls House, Stone Creek Canyon
Click on pictures to see larger images

Morning light on the canyon wall

It was another "sleep in" day so I got that precious extra half hour until 6am! We had breakfast burritos and grapefruit for breakfast. I really liked this camp, thanks to it being next to the wildly eroded Tapeats cliffs. I enjoyed the chance to wander about looking at the rock (and wishing it were safer to climb!). Packing up and loading took longer than usual but eventually we headed off downriver. Robert and I rode with Pat again, although this time I sat in the back to keep my chafed legs dry. Today Jen captained the paddle boat, and since Alan was the only guy in the boat, Jen and the women christened him "Alice" for the day so they could have an "all-female" crew.


Tapeats rock makes cool shapes	Morning in camp	"Alice" and the rest of the paddle boat crew

It was a hot sunny day, and we started off with a couple fun rapids and some little riffles. We floated down Conquistador's Aisle, an impressive relatively straight and long section of the inner canyon, and we saw bighorn sheep on the slopes. I really enjoyed just lazing on the back of the boat and soaking up the scenery. This day we passed through the "middle granite gorge", which was much less gorge-like than the "upper granite gorge" back around Phantom Ranch - the upper rim was almost always visible. The rock by the river was a type of schist that is super black, and the color contrasts between the pitch black river rock and the upper tiers of reds and purples and yellows was really cool.


Pat takes us through a rapid	Beautiful day on the river	Colorful canyon rocks

We stopped to scout Bedrock rapid, which had a huge rock placed so that the run seemed to require a kind of zigzag around it. Pat went first and we actually hit the rock and had to push ourselves off it. The paddle boat stayed clear and Sam managed to avoid it as well, but the other guides all hit it too.

We stopped for a break at the Dolls House, which was a neat rock formation that you can go into and scramble on and around it. It had "windows" and "doors" and everything! We enjoyed seeking out all the little interesting bits. It was quite warm and the rock was black, so you had to be careful about touching it with bare skin if it was in the sun! Back at the boats, Sam put up his super colorful umbrella for shade and kicked back, looking the picture of ease. We had lunch there (sandwiches and cookies again), each of us seeking out little patches of shade to stand in if possible.


Sitting in the dollhouse	Exploring the dollhouse	Jeanne and Jim


View from the dollhouse	Lunchtime

On the river

We continued on downriver and reached Deubendorff rapid. The water was low and the guides seemed relatively concerned about the run, but everyone made it through without incident. We stopped just below the rapid to camp at Stone Creek. Since it was stil early, the guides decided to wait to hike until a little later in the day, and I had time to wash my hair and relax for a little bit. The day was warm enough that for once the water felt kind of good instead of shockingly frigid!

Robert and I went on the hike up Stone Creek, which had several nice little waterfalls in an open canyon with a perennial stream. The guides pointed out several Anasazi granaries high up on the walls. At the second of the taller waterfalls, we stopped for a break and several people had a "waterfall shower". (I didn't because of trying to give my skin a break from mineralized water!) Jen and Paul then invited people to hike further with them to see another nice waterfall, and Robert and I decided to go (along with Hilary, Cindy, and Geoff). It was a nice hike to the final fall, and the last part of the canyon narrowed into a nice little slot. Robert and I hiked back a little ahead of the rest and made it back into camp in time to wash out our clothes before dinner (Robert improvised a clothesline to dry them).


Phil hiking along the trail	Stone Creek Canyon


The second major waterfall	The upper waterfall in the slot

Several of the guys started up a game of horseshoes since the beach was a nice long one, while Jeanne and I stretched and then did some writing in our journals. We had Thai curry with rice and salad for dinner; I think it was my favorite meal! Robert really liked dessert, which was gingerbread cake with whipped cream.

In his evening talk, Pat said we wouldn't do the hike to Thunder River, but we would do Deer Creek. I was a little disappointed to miss out on Thunder River (another place I'd heard a lot about), but not too much because I knew that I could always come back and hike to Thunder River from the rim. Pat also said we might not get to do Matkatamiba later on - he had decided that if there was another group there, we wouldn't stop because he thought it spoiled the experience to have too many people in that side canyon. I promptly began hoping for nobody else to be at Matkatamiba! Of course it's true that just about anywhere in the canyon is really cool, but some places I had read about sounded so neat that I hated to think of missing them.

After Pat's talk, a group of Hatch boatmen showed up. They were with a Hatch motor trip that had decided to wait to run Deubendorff until morning (when water levels would be higher), and so had camped above the rapid. Many of the boatmen on various commercial trips seemed to know each other - I guess it's a small world on the river! The Hatch guides had hiked down past the rapid to hang out with our guides, and they sat up late talking and laughing (but quietly so as not to disturb the passengers).