More River Time

The group of twelve that camped behind us said they were staying two nights but loaded up and left about 3:30 p.m. the second day. It was really interesting to watch them. I would have been very uncomfortable launching a group of that size that late in the day, but it seemed to work for them.

After a quiet second night at Arizona Hot Springs, we headed down stream. Our plan was to visit viewpoints along the river for an earth cache and then set up camp at Cranes Nest Wash (Mile 55.9) for a couple nights.

Unlike our first day, we had glassy water for the move from Arizona Hot Springs to Cranes Nest. I love paddling into reflections!

I love some of the geology in Cranes Nest Wash. This is an area that is typically ignored by folks on the river. Part of the wash has beautifully layered rock, with the layers running vertically. I especially liked this rock that we thought should be called the Eye of the Needle.

Further up the wash we found water sculpted pour overs

and pot holes. Given how rarely there is any water flowing in the wash, it's hard to imagine how many years it took to sculpt these rocks.

I loved the way that the conglomerate is all shaped by the water flows, leaving all the rocks even.

The lower part of the wash is in a wilderness area. There is a road that comes part way down the wash. At about .6 miles from the river is a nice sign indicating a camping area and No Target Shooting. Down the wash a bit further, where the road ends, is another sign, clearly used as a target!

By the end of time on the river, I was looking pretty grubby.

Unlike when we first started paddling this section of river, there is now a 32 page guide book printed on waterproof paper that points out many of the highlights. It's also available as a large pdf file from the Boulder City library.

We were blessed with another paddling day of light breezes. Easy paddling but hard to get reflection pictures.

We took out below the boat ramp at Willow Beach Marina. (about River Mile 52.5)

This section of the river was recently highlighted in Backpacker Magazine. Unfortunately, that article had lots of incorrect information.

There is no fee for camping in the Black Canyon but there is a $22 fee for launching at the dam. That fee is reduced if you have a Senior Pass. In addition to the launch fee, you MUST pay a shuttle service to launch you at the dam. That price varies depending on if you are providing your own boats or renting boats or using a guide.

This section can also be paddled upstream, launching from Willow Beach Marina, saving the cost and missing the experience of launching at the dam.

If you want to launch at the dam, I highly recommend our friends at Desert Adventures in Boulder City, NV or Desert River Outfitters in Bullhead City, AZ.

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.

Black Canyon - Again

One of the challenges of multi-day river trips is that you organize them long before you know what the weather forecasters anticipate. Since we were going to be in Vegas for a week, and Kathy was going to have a day off the middle of the following week, we decided to append a Black Canyon trip to our Vegas week. Since Helen had some other shuttles in the area, we scheduled our launch with her.

It's always special to launch below Hoover Dam. The view has changed since we first did this. It was fun to watch the progress of the bridge construction years back. We end up with a much better view than the tourists on the bridge, peering over the high, solid rail.

For the first time in years, we launched as part of the third launch of the day. There were three outfitters launching at the same time, including one who had their two little dogs running loose, creating a tripping hazards. We had three boats, another outfitter had two canoes with five adults and two small children, and the third outfitter was launching four solo kayaks.

Lake Mead (the lake below Hoover Dam, created by Davis Dam at Laughlin) was the lowest I've seen in quite a while. With the lake that low, we felt comfortable snagging the little pocket camp right near the beach. I've seen this spot under water in other years. It was nicely protected from the stiff upstream breeze.

Kathy assured her tent, clothes, and chair were all color coordinated. Too bad she didn't paint the blue drum to match! ;-)

One of the advantages of camping at the Arizona Hot Springs beach is that it has the only toilets above Willow Beach, 8 miles further downstream. Toilets it may have, but it paid to come prepared.

Truth in advertising - the pump-out boat arrived the second morning, reducing the level in the tanks and refilling the toilet paper racks.

I managed to screw up my packing. I usually include a pair of shoes for in camp, separate and apart from my choice of boat shoes. This time, when I was packing I figured on including the tennis shoes I was using in Vegas for camp shoes, but failed to include them when I finished up my camp packing our last night in Vegas. BJ bailed me out since she has a total of three pair of shoes and I could fit into her Crocs, Mickey Mouse and all.

The motor raft left the dam about an hour after we did, and stopped along the way. When they went by camp, it was interesting to see a bunch of the passengers wrapped up in what were either plastic trash bags or disposible plastic ponchos, in spite of the blue skies and nice temperatures.

Because of the stiff upstream wind our first day, all of the guided day trips passed us by for lack of time. Our second day we had two guided kayak day trips, a guided hiking day trip, a large group of "outdoor educators," and several small hiking groups who all decided to some to the hot springs because of the rain west of the city. The hot spring was very busy!

I didn't take the camera up to the hot springs, but did try to get a picture of this year's version of the ladder. It's been the same ladder for many years, but lost the handles at the top in a flash flood a year ago. Now the ladder has a 4x4 post bolted to the top with a couple handles screwed to the post. Not as good as the original handles, but way better than the total lack of handles like we had in March.

We were greeted with glassy smooth water as we loaded out on the morning of our third day.

Kathy was paddling BJ's spare ScupperPro since we haven't gotten around to doing the repairs to Knot Too Shabby. I couldn't resist the reflection!

It was a slow, lazy paddle downstream as the forecast tailwind developed. The only excitement was the fisherman that caught a big striper just as we drifted by.

The tailwind continued on our drive home, almost all the way to Phoenix. Loved the improved mileage. It was nice to get home where gas prices were about 65 cents cheaper than Vegas!

Last Day in the Black Canyon

After time out for a report of the Alaska State Hockey Championships, we're back to finish reporting on the Black Canyon trip.

We woke to blue skies on our last day for this trip in the Black Canyon. Some of us enjoyed a warm breakfast of oatmeal and coffee before breaking camp. The early morning surge from the dam was already starting to recede as we loaded the boats.

It was nice to see the groover guy from Lake Mead National Recreation Area there to drain the holding tanks for the two outhouses. These are the only outhouses on this section of the river and are heavily used. With launch permits at the dam sold out for the coming weekend and the beginning of Spring Break, it wasn't going to be pretty if they'd let the tanks fill much more.

It was a delightful morning to be on the river - sunshine and a very light tailwind as we started. Everyone had smiles on their faces and good memories of our hike yesterday. We never did get back to soak in the hot springs, but that just means we'll have to do the trip over again one of these days.

The dripping spring near mile 59 was looking good.

We all kept looking for Desert Bighorn Sheep on the hillsides. They're quite common in the area and sometimes are sighted in fairly large groups. Kathy did spot two adults and a lamb high on the Arizona side of the river, but they were too far away for a picture.

We passed Crane's Nest Wash and then started looking for a spot to take a break.

The little pocket beach about mile 55.5 was our home for a short break as we exclaimed about how the weather was much nicer than we'd expected from the reports.

We stopped in the cove on river left just below Emerald Cave at mile 54 so that I could get a picture of Kathy's Knot Too Shabby hovering above the sandy bottom. This is the same place that some of my earlier wood boat projects had been photographed years ago.

As long as we were here, I got a picture of the canoe (Knot Again,) but I was too lazy to unload it.

About that time, BJ and Suzanne came around the corner from Emerald Cave so I got pictures of them. By that time the breeze was starting to build so these pictures didn't get the same "levitation" effect,

but it was clear that everyone was enjoying the trip!

Our trip ended at Willow Beach Marina at river mile 52.5. The official Black Canyon Water Trail continues on down lake another 13 miles or so, but it's quite possible to paddle all the way to Katherine Landing, just above Davis Dam at Bullhead City.

We were so glad Suzanne could join us for this trip. We're looking forward to more time together with her on rivers in the future.

A big thanks, also, to our friend Izzy, and all the staff of Desert Adventures, who provided launch and shuttle logistical support for this trip.

Duck, Duck, Sheep

The sun rose about 7 a.m. on Tuesday with our camp and the river still in shadows. I came down to the river to watch the light change on the hills as the sun rose.

Soon, I was joined by the others, and we decided to fix breakfast on the beach and watch for river traffic. Bacon, eggs, blue sky, no wind, and good friends provided the makings of another great day.

BJ had barely started her research into relaxation methods & practice when the ducks showed up. This is the first time in all the years I’ve been coming here that the ducks showed up looking for a hand out. They’ve obviously been conditioned because they were very willing to come very close, including nibbling on Suzanne's shoe.

A solitary sheep showed up on the far shore, spending about 30 minutes grazing before bedding down.

After lunch we decided to see if we could find the petroglyphs. BJ had located them once several years ago, so was quickly designated our fearless leader. There was a lot more water on the lower portion of the trail to the hot springs because of the rain on Sunday.

The trail follows a slot canyon / narrow wash with a number of smaller falls and one larger falls equipped with a ladder. Below the hot springs, the falls are flowing. Above the hot springs, the falls are dry.

The hot springs are dammed with sand bags to create pools. This is the lowest (and coolest) pool, located below the ladder. I didn't get any pictures of the ladder and upper pools because I put my camera away to protect it. The ladder was damaged in a flash flood at some point in the last year or so, and no longer has hand holds at the top. In addition, it is somewhat twisted.

Once we got through all the hot spring pools, we stopped so the gals could switch from water shoes to hiking shoes. I stuck with my heavy duty NRS workboot wet shoes for the whole hike.

We spotted another group of 6 sheep on the slopes above the upper wash. While the wash was dry, and very rarely flows, the rock shows considerable wear and polishing. Some of the dry falls were 8 to 10 feet high and smoothly polished.

The arrow points to the person who didn't notice the arrow. It also points to the wash that contained our target for the day - some petroglyphs.

While the petroglyphs were somewhat disappointing, the hike and resulting view were spectacular. A look at the growing clouds and wind encouraged us to return expeditiously. By the time we got down to the hot spring area, we had thunder and lightning in the area so we didn't stay and soak in the hot springs.

We got back to camp just in time to take a nap to the sound of rain on our tents, which stopped long enough to start dinner. Sprinkles came back a couple times throughout the evening - a small price to pay for another day in paradise.