Grand Canyon - Day 2 - Thursday 4/22/21

Our first morning in the Canyon, we woke to a Shofar call announcing hot coffee and orange juice. Shortly thereafter we feasted on Eggs to order, bacon, and hash browns. 

We packed up our cots, a go-bag with camera and hiking gear, and a dry bag that held our other belongings, and sleeping bag. We also had a bag to hold everyone’s tripods that would be available for photo shoots.

I took my place on the “rack” and off we went down the first days rapids, a continuous succession known as the Roaring Twenties as they were that far from Mile Zero.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LChOzkrhlBE

After that came what a fondly call “opps another rapid” that Lauren failed to notify us as we were caught by surprise.

We pulled over for a photo shoot at Redwall Canyon Amphitheater an carved out formation that John Wesley Powell claimed could easily hold 50,000 people. This gave us time to work with Willie on our photography skills. He was extremely patient with me and the other newbies.

A a short lazy float later we pulled up onto a sandbar for lunch near Nautiloid Canyon. We had sandwiches, mine was roast beef and swiss.

After lunch we dropped into Nautiloid Rapid and went through a few more including Pres. Harding Rapid. 

We arrived at our campsite early by Nankoweap Creek to give us plenty of time to hike up to the Pueblo granaries for a spectacular view of the river below. 

I used an artistic feature of my camera to get an amazing picture of river and canyon walls. You can see our rafts tied up in the lower left corner.

It was Italian night at camp with caprese salad as appetizers and spaghetti with meatballs and garlic toast. These guides know how to cook!

Rich and I stayed up late chatting, drinking bourbon and reminiscing about the great day we’d had and the similarities to starry nights at Philmont.