Speaking of geological processes:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...Day-6-23-B.jpg
This rock sticking out of a river is known as Vulcan's Anvil; a solidified plug of hard, black lava rising up from the riverbed. Of itself, the Anvil isn't all that impressive, and my photo isn't beautiful, or particularly interesting. Not, that is, until you put it in context!
The trip on which I encountered this thing started out as a road trip: a drive from Phoenix to Las Vegas with one of my friends. After a night in Vegas, we boarded a chartered bus for the five hour ride to Lee's Ferry, where we boarded a big pontoon raft for the eight day journey down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. At the end of the rafting trip, another bus back to Vegas, and a flight back home to Phoenix.
The Anvil showed up on Day 6 of the rafting trip. It's a signpost, a marker indicating the imminent approach of an infamous rapid. Lava Falls isn’t the biggest rapid in the Grand Canyon, because it has a relatively short run, but it’s widely considered to be among the baddest stretches of whitewater in North America. Vulcan's Anvil announced our impending arrival at this rapid, which is sometimes referred to as Vulcan, after the Roman god of fire. It’s the lava deposits beneath the surface of the river that created this rapid, but the anvil was the only piece of it that showed.Once we passed the Anvil, there was no turning back.
“Two Hander!” John called out rather gleefully (meaning: hang on with BOTH HANDS!), and we all clung to the ropes for dear life as the raft picked up speed. We were headed straight for the boil of the rapid, which was roaring like a freight train, bearing down. John hadn’t bothered to scout this one first. He knew what he was doing, and his confidence really showed. We entered the churning whitewater pretty much dead center, then moved hard to the right to avoid the standing waves and the big holes in the middle of the channel. We got good and drenched at least three times, almost like running under a series of waterfalls, bucking and lurching like crazy, but the whole thing was over in less than a minute. Once we got to calmer water, John swung the nose of the raft around, pointing it back upriver toward the rapid, and held it stationary in mid-channel, gunning the outboard just enough to nullify the current, waiting and watching while Mikenna piloted our second raft, and the other half of our party, through the dangerous rapid. She may not have been as experienced as John, but she handled it like a pro, and in no time at all, our whole group was safe and sound on the other side.
A group of smallish three-passenger oar boats was pulled over to the bank at the top of the rapid when we first entered it. Once Mikenna’s raft was clear, she turned around nose first as well, and both boats stayed in place to act as spotters for the little guys, who had deliberately waited for us to pass, for that very reason. No matter how experienced the boatman, small rafts are in serious danger of flipping in these big rapids. If that happened, and if those rafters turned into swimmers, we’d be there to help fish them out of the water once they passed through the worst of it.
The first of the small rafts entered Lava Falls, two dudes, one of them on his feet at the oars, and quite dashing, wearing a helmet with horns and a pair of skin tight pants with a garish flame pattern.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...Day-6-28-1.jpg
They sailed through it like it was nothing, shouting gleefully, a couple of well-seasoned river runners. The second boat carried two women, and when they hit the biggest wave the one handling the oars was very nearly thrown out, but she somehow managed to hang on, and she stayed with the raft, a very close call. The third and final raft was a guy and a gal, and the same thing happened to them—the raft bucked high in the air, but this time, the young woman crouching in the prow was thrown completely clear of the raft, tossed into the middle of the rapid headfirst. We were horrified, imagining the worst, but she was a trooper, and she’d obviously done this sort of thing before. She bobbed up to the surface almost immediately and swam for it, with powerful strokes, not rattled in the least, and her friends picked her up maybe a minute later, all of them laughing uproariously.
John and Mikenna turned the rafts around then and headed for shore, a wide rocky ledge, the perfect spot to have our lunch.
My rafting trip through the Grand Canyon was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. I highly recommend the experience!
Rick
one of the highlights of my younger life.
The raft I was in for the ride through Lava Falls was about 1/2 the size of the "smaller" rafts you photographed above. Lava Falls is a "noisy" rapid, but for my money the scariest hole we surfed around was the first drop of Crystal. That roar and the depth of the hole that you can see when you are maddly paddling past is astonishing. I considered trying Crystal in a kayak, but wiser friends suggested I stick to the raft -- and that was plenty daunting. I would not have wanted to try and swim through the hydraulics of that rapid.
I was fortunate to spend 23 days rafting the canyon in 1980 and another seven free-climbing, hiking along the Kaibab --thus spending the entire month of October below the rim. Like Rick mentioned, one of the highlights of my younger life.
Mark
Grand Canyon, February 2023
Speaking of the Grand Canyon -- these were taken in February 2023:
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...823743_HDR.jpg
(El Tovar Hotel -- our room was at the left side facing the canyon)
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...149330_HDR.jpg
Megan Edwards enjoying the view from our deck at the El Tovar.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...-1-rotated.jpg
Rim Trail 1/4 mile from the hotel
Crystal Rapid is the BOMB!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark Sedenquist
Lava Falls is a "noisy" rapid, but for my money the scariest hole we surfed around was the first drop of Crystal. That roar and the depth of the hole that you can see when you are maddly paddling past is astonishing.
Mark
I couldn't agree more about Crystal Rapid--the Hermit was a little scarier going through it (lord, did we ever get WET), but Crystal was a literal force of nature. Here's a link to a short You Tube video of some adrenalin junkies running that thing during a high water release (40 K cfs!), for anyone who's interested:
<<High Flow at Crystal Rapid>>
Rick
Megan at Elmers Bottle Tree Ranch in 2019
A must-see attraction near Park City
Can you parse what you are looking at here?
This an example of some of the coolest technology I saw in 2022.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...64-rotated.jpg
Heber Valley Dairy Farm, (near Park City, Utah)
Gotta be a milking machine
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark Sedenquist
Either that, or a cow wash (and this old gal could surely use it!)
Rick
Blood pressure on the rise
RPMs starting to ramp up.
This is the view (except for the night and the lights) when F1 race drivers hit the beginning of the back straight-away (also known as The Strip) and reach speeds around 220 mph before breaking hard for the left-hand turn onto Harmon.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...raightaway.jpg
And I posted a short video, from November 11th as I drove along the Strip here.
National Mall in Washington, DC
Cherry Blossoms on the National Mall. Can't quite remember exactly where this was. There is a memorial in the background.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...tionalMall.jpg
Photo by Megan Edwards on April 4, 2013
You can't get there from here
AZ 88, otherwise known as the Apache Trail, is (was?) one of my favorite drives in my home state. Built in the early 1900's to transport the men and material required for the construction of Roosevelt Dam, it runs (ran?) from Apache Junction to Roosevelt Lake, providing access to Canyon Lake and Apache Lake as well, along with some of the wildest countryside in Arizona. The roughest section of the Trail, through Fish Creek Canyon, was never paved. It was narrow, and rocky, and, well, ROUGH, but those of us who love that sort of thing loved it dearly. Why do I keep using past tense? Because flooding and subsequent landslides back in 2019 effectively closed that rough section of the Apache Trail. The estimated cost of repairs is ridiculously high, and very difficult to justify. They have nevertheless managed to reopen some five miles of the problem section--but it's only open to high clearance four-wheel drive vehicles. Anything more remains contingent on elusive Federal funding.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog...ache-Trail.jpg
The Apache Trail is (was?) an optional segment of Scenic Side Trip #11: Phoenix to Hobrook; a scenic alternative to Interstate 17.
Rick
Read more about Rick's book here and see a map for all of the routes he wrote about.
All Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
Just in time for Thanksgiving, Fall has finally come to my little corner of the desert here in Tucson.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/foru...2&d=1731176711
AZBuck
Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health
Speaking of art. I don't know if this is still here. This was captured in July 2019 at the Gardens on the ground of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health - Las Vegas research center in Las Vegas.
https://www.roadtripamerica.com/blog..._092853158.jpg
This is located near the performing arts center -- The Smith Center.
