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  1. #81
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Posts
    794

    Default Speaking of geological processes:



    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.

    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
    Last edited by Rick Quinn; 11-21-2024 at 10:46 AM. Reason: Added a second photo

  2. #82
    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Location
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    Posts
    12,932

    Default 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

  3. #83
    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Location
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    Posts
    12,932

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by AZBuck View Post
    Depending on the size of the original fracture joints, the remaining (now columns of) rock can be of various sizes. These are on the large size. Also, the Giant's Causeway is formed of basalt, a fairly weather resistant rock formed at depth. The columns shown here appear to be made of poorly consolidate tephra formed near the surface, and it will erode more easily. This ease of erosion makes it more likely that some of the columns will fall, exposing the sides of the remaining columns to greater erosion, causing them to erode more rapidly, etc.
    AZBuck
    Great explanation. Thanks,

    Mark

  4. #84
    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Location
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    Posts
    12,932

    Default Grand Canyon, February 2023

    Speaking of the Grand Canyon -- these were taken in February 2023:


    (El Tovar Hotel -- our room was at the left side facing the canyon)


    Megan Edwards enjoying the view from our deck at the El Tovar.


    Rim Trail 1/4 mile from the hotel

  5. #85
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Phoenix, Arizona
    Posts
    794

    Default Crystal Rapid is the BOMB!

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Sedenquist View Post
    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

  6. #86
    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Location
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    Posts
    12,932

    Default too heavy to flip.

    Quote Originally Posted by Rick Quinn View Post
    but Crystal was a literal force of nature.
    Those look like self-baling boats, the one I was in, had a rubber bottom and baling like one possessed was a daily experience. Although at Crystal and a couple others, we deliberately took a wave across the side to make us too heavy to flip.

  7. #87
    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Location
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    Posts
    12,932

    Default Megan at Elmers Bottle Tree Ranch in 2019

    Famous Elmers Bottle Tree Ranch on Route 66


    January 17, 2019 (Megan Edwards)

  8. #88
    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Location
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    Posts
    12,932

    Default Hmmm. Las Vegas

    I doubt there is anyone alive (in the English-speaking world) who doesn't know where this is.


    Las Vegas, Nevada (December, 2023)

  9. #89
    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Location
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    Posts
    12,932

    Default Steamed Heat

    I like the notice of "steamed heat" as a inducement to stay!


    From the Neon Sign Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. August, 2021

  10. #90
    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Location
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    Posts
    12,932

    Default 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.


    Heber Valley Dairy Farm, (near Park City, Utah)

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