EXPERIENCES IN THE GRAND CANYON 



18^ 



our choice of bed-rooms. They were al- 

 ways well ventilated. 



With all our efforts to make headway, 

 our usual day's run was about lo miles, 

 if we were in bad water. The Grand 

 Canyon would come under this list, with 

 its 1,700-foot fall in 200 miles. It was 

 seldom that we had any sun in these 

 deeper canyons (see page 180), as we 

 traveled toward the west. In December 

 and January it snowed several times, but 

 the snow never descended quite to us, but 

 turned to a chilling rain. This would 

 freeze on the rocks, making it very poor 

 footing; so we made no portages that 

 were not absolutely necessary. 



BE1.0W the; toroweep 



About 60 or 70 miles of this great sheer- 

 wall canyon, the walls began to break 

 down, becoming lower and less precipi- 

 tous. How long it lasted it would be 

 hard to say, but the stream resumed its 

 relentless sawing and cut down to its old 

 level just as it had before, and mammoth 

 blocks of the volcanic rock are scattered 

 for miles along its course. 



At one point in this section we imag- 

 ined we saw smoke and hastened down, 

 wondering if our new - found friend 

 would be a prospector or a cattle-rustler. 

 Instead of a camp-fire we found some 

 warm springs falling 20 feet into the 

 river. Beside the springs was a lava- 

 filled rapid, so full of jagged sections of 

 the volcanic rock from the cliffs that a 

 portage was advisable. It was colder 

 than usual this morning, and we were in 

 the icy water a great deal as we lined 

 and lifted the boat over the rocks at the 

 edge of the rapid. We would stand this 

 until numbed with the cold, then would 

 go down and thaw out in the warmer 

 water at the springs. 



A WAYSIDE MEETING 



A day's travel below this we did see 

 some smoke, and on climbing the bank 

 found a little, old prospector sitting in a 

 dugout which he had shoveled out of 

 the sand. The roar of the rapid pre- 

 vented him from hearing us until we 

 were directly in front of him. 



He looked at our clothes, the rubber 

 coats and life-preservers, then said in a 



matter-of-fact tone: "Well, you boys 

 must have come by the river." After 

 talking with him awhile we learned that 

 he had once been wrecked in Lodore 

 Canyon, and that Mr. Chew, who had 

 taken Jimmie out, had supplied him with 

 a horse and aided him on his way to civ- 

 ilization. His name, he told us, was Sny- 

 der, and he had just been across the river 

 on a raft to do some assessment-work on 

 a copper claim which he was sure would 

 develop into a valuable mine. 



He was cooking his noon meal when 

 we arrived — two pieces of bacon and two 

 biscuits — in a frying-pan, and with noth- 

 ing else in sight ; yet with true Western 

 hospitality he invited us to stay for din- 

 ner. We thanked him, but declined, as 

 he told us that we were but six miles 

 above Diamond Creek, where by walking 

 22 miles, with a climb of 4,000 feet, we 

 could reach the railway. 



Below Diamond Creek we were sur- 

 prised to find the granite walls even 

 higher than they were above, and the 

 rapids continued to get worse. We had 

 imagined that the walls receded down, 

 but the opposite was the case. It was in 

 this last section that the three men left 

 the Powell party, when within a little 

 more than a day's journey from the end 

 of the canyon. They were killed by the 

 Indians the day after they climbed out 

 on top. 



THE EAST GREAT RAPID 



Any one expecting to make this joy 

 ride at any time will know by three 

 pointed peaks, on the south side, that 

 they are nearing the end of the canyon ; 

 also by a long quiescent stretch of water 

 that they are nearing one of the worst 

 rapids in the series. Major Powell 

 graphically describes this rapid, located, 

 as he said, "below a bold, lava-capped 

 escarpment." Mr. Stone also warned us 

 against it, stating "it was the last bad 

 rapid in the canyon. Below that every- 

 thing could be run." 



On account of low water we were en- 

 abled to land at the lower end of the es- 

 carpment before beginning this portage. 

 The river had an approximate fall of 40 

 feet and was filled with exposed and 

 slightly submerged boulders from one 



