River Time

Usually, we manage to spend a week or two on the Green River in Utah in the fall. This year, I was too late to get reservations for the jet boat shuttle so we decided to spend a few days on the Black Canyon section of the Colorado River below Hoover Dam.

We figured out which week Kathy could get off work, loaded the boats and gear, and the three of us headed northwest.

We did a couple geocaches along the way including a virtual at the trailhead for the trail to Arizona Hot Springs. We debated for about 30 seconds about carrying the boats in from here but decided the 3.5 mile hike with our boats and gear was not practical.

The weather on Monday morning looked good if you believe this picture, but the reality was that there was over 20 mph of wind blowing. At least it was a tailwind, but the canoe was squirrely to say the least!

While this section of the river is typically a day trip, we've been known to spend more time. This time, we decided to break the 11 mile trip into three pieces, spending two nights at each camp.

When we arrived at Arizona Hot Springs (Mile 59.7,) there were already a bunch of people scattered out but we found some spots tucked into alcoves with protection from the wind.

Just about the time we figured things were going to settle down for the evening, a group of 12 arrived and decided that our chosen spot needed some very close neighbors.

After breakfast the next morning, we headed up through the hot springs towards some petroglyphs. We visited these with Suzanne over two years ago but I wanted to go back to fulfill the requirements of a virtual cache located nearby.

Kathy and I elected to use our water shoes for the hike while BJ decided to switch into hiking shoes once we got above the hot springs.

The petroglyphs we saw last time were still there.

We spotted more as we continued up the wash. These are quite different from the petroglyphs we typically see in Utah. I'm not sure if this is proof of space aliens or that Halloween has been celebrated longer than I thought.

After the petroglyphs it was back through the hot springs and down the ladder to camp. I just couldn't resist this shot of BJ descending the ladder. Usually we're too busy making sure to not slip to take a picture.