We woke up to this absolutely peaceful, stunning sunrise on the wall of the Grand Canyon.

Sue wore another geologist t-shirt.

Ken took a photo of Audrey’s feet in the sand just to show to their neighbor kids that she was willing to have her feet in the sand.  Aud doesn’t like doing that.

Mija was securing the  ammo boxes onto the raft.

We were on our way and it was a beautiful day.

The views in the Canyon continued to amaze me.  I took so many photos this day.

 

Duffy soaked everybody in his raft again.

Another waterfall.

Ken called this photo he took, “Bacon Rock.”

And he took this one of a schist covered with barrel cacti.

Dave is either two fisted drinking or getting ready to throw one of them to us.

Great sites.

We passed by this orange colored barrel looking thing (near mile 213) and Emily said that the water pooled behind it is laced with arsenic.  It is called Pumpkin Springs.

We docked so that some of us could jump off the rock.  Emily said that we would have to be able to swim to a rope and climb up.

Kathy, Emily, and Mija did the jump.

The travertine bowl drips the bitter water into the river.

I just took the photographs but wished I had had the courage to jump.  It was not like me to pass up and adventure.

We still had more rapids.

And more views.

 

Docking today meant hooking into the rocks.

Today we covered another 37 miles and docked at mile 220.

Our small happy hour group gathered near Audrey’s and Ken’s tent.

I set up my cot to sleep outside but near the tent so I could keep the CPAP machine inside. I was so happy that I was going to be able to sleep outside again tonight.

For our last dinner Duffy cooked steaks.

We also had baked potatoes, salad, and another great dessert.

The pink sky was a treat.

Everybody enjoyed the last supper.

This was the last time we had to wash dishes.

Mija came up to me and said, “You do have a trendy side mullet.  I had not idea what she was talking about.  She said that on the first day, she had told Emily that my haircut was a trendy side mullet but because I had my sunhat on my head, Emily thought that I had my hair pinned up. I must have had my hat off tonight for a while and Mija was so excited to tell Emily that she was right.  I have never heard that phrase and it really made me laugh to hear my haircut described that way.

Emily took us on a walk to see where somebody had marked a high water level from 1993. Emily knows who did this but we won’t say.

Ken Kane sent me this very interesting information about this high water mark.

For anyone who has read The Emerald Mile, this date will ring a bell. 7/1/1983 was near the end of a massive spring runoff that nearly compromised the Glen Canyon Dam. The dam operators sent as much water as possible over and around the dam in order to save it. This caused the runoff into the Colorado below the dam and through its 277-mile course to the Grand Wash Cliffs to reach epic proportions. The runoff ballooned from the normal 12,000 cubic feet per second (about what we experienced during our trip) to the 92,000 cfs noted on the rock.

This rare event inspired the dory Emerald Mile to make a speed run through the canyon at the end of June 1983. The same trip that took us eight days, it did in a little over 36 hours — a record that hasn’t been touched in the 36 years since.

This rock was barely out of the water on 7/1/1983. When we walked to it during our trip it was perhaps 200 yards from the river and 10 feet above it.

This was my last chance to photograph the cacti and flowers.

What a nice ending for this day.  It was a beautiful night for sleeping.