"Grand Canyon "drifting"" Top 5 Page for this destination Grand Canyon National Park Travelogue by Martin_S.

As always, day after day, mile after mile, the scenery in the Grand Canyon never ceased to amaze and awe me, a little piece of primal earth all to ourselves without millions of tourists gawking and screaming at their children, peace and quiet was the call of the day.

Ammo Boxes, another use

You can see in the forground the ammo boxes, painted white and each having a number on it. These were used to keep or personal belongings dry during the day, like camers, sunglasses and sunscreen that all needed to be at hand, but you did not want to lose in the rapids.

Grand Canyon "drifting below cliffs.

In places the cliffs were close to hand as we floated below them, seeming almost to close out the sky.

Grand Canyon Rafting, the "other" raft

Here you can get a good idea of the size of our rafts, in our compliment we were two rafts, each with two guides and half our people...we were only 19 rafters on rafts that can hold 14 + 2 guides EACH...The motor, located in the far rear was very quiet and you could usually not even hear it, just on the extremely quiet sections of the river and then the guides would often shut it off and just let us drift. You did not have to worry about hearing this motor in the rapids.....

Grand Canyon drifting between canyon walls

Here is a beautiful example of the colors in the area, the contrasts between the nearer canyon walls and those in the distance. As you raft the canyon you see exposed layers of rock that go back into ancient history about 2 billion years...all these layers have fancy names like Moenkopi Formation, Hermit Shale, Gardenas Basalt and even Bass LImestone, all dating from different periods from the Mesozoic to the Porterozoic....and don't ask me to pronouce those please.

Master Guide, Grand Canyon

Don't leave home without one. A Master Guide is the one who can "read the river" and take you safely through rapids that would throw you for a loop or suck you under.

Vulcan's Anvil at mile 178

This is Vulcan's Anvil at mile 178, an enormous boulder sitting in the middle of the river. About the size of a small house.

Lava flow, cooled and cookie cuttered

Here in the area of Lava Falls, the geology of the area has many outcroppings of lava, here the lava has dried and split into six sided oblongs following the direction of its flow when it cooled.