Self Belief is Everything

All words and pictures copyright Alastair Rose 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Grand Canyon - The River

And finally some action shots. We took four 18foot gear boats, three kayaks and an inflatable kayak that made some brief appearances.
Scouting Lava

Whitney (at the oars) and Clare coming through "Granite" rapid in style - yes there is a boat in there!
JP slamming the hole on "Crystal" rapid
Steve and Jason hitting the whole on Crystal

Its not all white water, most of it looks like this - pulling into lunch at Blacktail canyon.

A classically confusing rapid description from the guidebook!

Rachel (with Anders and Amber up front) hitting the wave a little sideways at the bottom of Lava
Rachel getting Anders and Amber wet at the top of Lava

Grand Canyon - The Places

One of the most amazing things about the Grand Canyon is watching the colours of the rock change as you slowly drop into the landscape as well as all the side canyons to explore.
"Elves Chasm" - you can actually jump from the middle tier of the fall though it is only about 8ft deep!
Deer Creek falls.
Stars above the river when we were camped at Soap creek (Day 2)
Crazy white stripes through the red sandstone at Unkar Delta
Upper falls of Deer Creek
Canyon walls - the right side is lit by moonlight and the left by the fire at "Upset Hotel" Camp
River bends in the early morning light at Nankoweap.
Unkar Delta (on the right of the image) - the sandy spot just right of middle is camp.
Havasu Canyon flowing strong

Grand Canyon - The People

Finally have a good internet connection after a couple of months on the road. I have a couple of blog posts coming up but first up some photos from the 22day grand canyon rafting trip. We launched on the 27th of October and for the most part had glorious weather. Probably the best part of the trip was just being in a beautiful place with good people. Amazingly we were all still talking after 22 days and even chose to hang out for another week together afterwards!
Fairly early in the trip (you can tell as the water is not yet muddy brown) on the raft with Clare, Whitney and Bob.
Jason and Jor-El doing some acrobatics to get the inflatable kayak (and bob) up the "silver grotto" side canyon.
The first of many fancy dress nights - Steve and Cori at halloween
Steve, Anders, Bob and Meagan - Another intense game of Batchi Ball in camp
Steve and Jason take a big hit (a little sideways) in the bottom wave of Lava falls
Bob and Clares one year wedding anniversary.
Playing "Jungle Jam" in camp.