You know what’s a great way to start the day? This view:
After the amazing sunset the previous evening, I woke up early and took a look at the sky to see how things looked for the sunrise. Of course this is a pretty easy task when you are sleeping on the ground without a tent, so what I really did was just roll over and look up. I could tell those wispy clouds from the night before had stuck around, so I figured there would be a good chance of a colorful sunrise, especially given that we were in a fairly open section of the canyon. As it turns out, that was correct, and I had a great time capturing it all from the far side of the debris fan that we were camping at.
As usual, we had our breakfast and set off downstream before long. The river started off quiet that morning as we made our way down to Diamond Creek, the takeout used by most of the trips through the canyon. We were on the last day of our permit at this point, so we were right on schedule passing Diamond Creek. Unfortunately, we were slowed down a bit by a stomach bug that hit one of our boat captains. Fortunately she was able to make it through the day with some extra rest, and we continued on.
Given Diamond Creek’s reputation as the typical end point of river trips, I was expecting the canyon to remain more open and have less interesting whitewater. After all, if it’s just as good downstream, why take out at Diamond? Apparently I was wrong though, and the rest of our day turned out to be as good as any that came before it. There was tons of great whitewater, including a three rapids rated 5 and one rated 7. We also stopped for lunch at the Travertine Grotto, a really cool little cave/slot canyon/waterfall combination that was just off the river.
We all spent some time walking up and down the grotto, taking pictures by the waterfall, and admiring the intricate stone structures all around. The grotto gets its name from the travertine limestone it carves through. This limestone is created by water that rapidly deposits minerals to form all kinds of small structures. You can really see how the deposits have changed over time as the flow of the water shifted. At a larger scale the rock looks almost molten because of the way it follows the flow of water. It’s really something else.
Once we were passed the grotto the whitewater really picked up. The river started carving down through schists and granites again, tightening the flow of the river creating more and more whitewater. The highlight of the day was Killer Fang Falls, a rapid with a fearsome name, but one that did not end up causing us any trouble. Everyone avoided the schist “fangs” that are so feared.
In the interest of letting our under the weather boat captain some extra rest, we got off the water a bit early at Bridge Canyon Camp. The camp was tucked into a tight section of the canyon without much flat space to set up our chairs, but it had some neat rocks and cliff formations right there at camp. I was able to climb up on one to get some neat views of camp, as well as the sun setting further downstream.
Before long it was time to head to bed. The sounds of the nearby rapids made for a soothing background noise, so it didn’t take long for me to pass out. Good thing too, because I was up early again the next morning. But that story can wait until next time.
Taken 11/8/21
