The Grand Time

Tom's Journal

June 15, 2007 - Day 31

View A Different Day

After a good night’s sleep we got packed quickly.

It was a good thing too, because a really nice group of people on a Wilderness River Adventures trip wanted to stop at our beach and take a short hike.

While the rest of their group was gone, I had a chance to talk with a nice lady named Peggy from Athen’s GA. When the others returned, guides Steve and Susan were kind enough to give us some ice, which is a precious commodity here.

Within a mile after launching, we came upon Vasey’s Paradise, where a large spring flows from the cliff wall on the right. We stopped to fill our water vessels and chew on the tasty watercress that grows along with a very healthy stand of poison ivy.

About a mile farther along this mostly calm stretch we stopped at Red Wall Cavern, a huge, sandy undercut area carved into to the sandstone by the river’s current making a sharp right turn. Major Powell estimated 50,000 people could be seated here and he may have been right.

Back in the boats once more, we enjoyed one more rapid and the smooth water below it that lasted for about five more miles to Buck Farm Canyon at mile 41 on the map. The afternoon upstream wind reared its ugly head and we had to employ the rocket box “sea anchor” system we used so many miles upstream near Moab to make progress.

Along the way we saw what appeared to be a quite healthy group of desert bighorn sheep along the shoreline.

At Buck Farm we again met our new friends on the Wilderness River Adventures trip. They shared the large beach and some beverages with us; better yet, Susan had a recording of Jack Johnson playing. He is a favorite of my family and many of our friends, and it was great to hear him where he should be heard-on the beach.

Soon they departed and we were left to enjoy the beach, the setting sun and a nice hike in the shade along the trail up this classic side canyon.

It is impossible to overstate the impact made by the constantly changing colors combined with the unfathomable scale of this place. Even our own colors are changing as no amount of sunscreen can keep it from happening.

It truly does feel like we somehow are beginning to belong to this National Park even though we know it is supposed to be vice versa.
View A Different Day

Mile by Mile Photos

June 15, 2007 - Day 31
Mile 675 through Mile 688

May 16 2007 - Day 1May 17 2007 - Day 2May 18 2007 - Day 3May 19 2007 - Day 4May 20 2007 - Day 5May 21 2007 - Day 6May 22 2007 - Day 7May 23 2007 - Day 8May 24 2007 - Day 9May 25 2007 - Day 10May 26 2007 - Day 11May 27, 2007 - Day 12May 28, 2007 - Day 13May 29, 2007 - Day 14May 30, 2007 - Day 15May 31, 2007 - Day 16June 1, 2007 - Day 17June 2 - 11, Day 18 - 27June 12, 2007 - Day 28June 13, 2007 - Day 29June 14, 2007 - Day 30June 15, 2007 - Day 31June 16, 2007 - Day 32June 17, 2007 - Day 33June 18, 2007 - Day 34June 19, 2007 - Day 35June 20, 2007 - Day 36June 21, 2007 - Day 37June 22, 2007 - Day 38June 23, 2007 - Day 39June 24, 2007 - Day 40June 25, 2007 - Day 41June 26, 2007 - Day 42June 27, 2007 - Day 43June 28, 2007 - Day 44June 29 2007 - Day 45June 30, 2007 - Day 46July 1 - 13, Day 47 - 58July 15, 2007 - Day 59
The last day; The river’s end