Grand Canyon Adventure - August 16, 2008

Several years ago my husband read a newspaper article about a road to drive down to the Colorado River through part of the Grand Canyon. He more recently researched this and found the road which can be accessed through the small town of Peach Springs, AZ. We stayed in a great RV park near Kingman, and drove to Peach Springs, found the road and started our adventure. This is a primitive road that is on the Hualapi Reservation, and we were not aware that this meant one needs a Special Use Permit to drive over this road, but were told of this by a tour group driver who was in the area with a group. We were soon surprised by a member of the tribe who offered to issue a permit to us when she found we did not have one. This matter was accomplished, to the tune of $32.10 (don't ask me where they came up with that extra 10 cents when the price was already exorbitant!) and we were again on our way toward the river. From the moment we found this road, our trip was punctuated by my exclamations of "oh wow!" every time we rounded a curve. The vistas were magnificent, the weather and lighting perfect for photos, and the scenery was majestic to see in all directions. We decided that the photos we took (over 450) as well as the wonderful day we had all helped to assuage the high price of driving on this road and we are so glad we went.

We arrived back to our RV park at 3:00 PM, but the clouds were rolling in to the canyon as we were leaving. Unfortunately, upriver from where we were a dam burst early the next morning and caused evacuations of another part of the canyon. This was on the Havasupai Reservation, we had been on the Hualapai Reservation, but it was the same Grand Canyon and same Colorado River, chilling thought! In seeing how the part of the river was where we were, I can see how this would happen as the water was running swiftly and deeply as it was, with an earthen dam bursting and the water being 8-feet above flood level it must have been frightening for sure.

I will include some teaser photos here on the blog, but if you would like to see many more from this trip I have created a set in my Flickr site. The link to this album is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcbysusanroper/sets/72157606801499766/show/ The burros are some wild burros living in the area. They were the only wildlife we saw, other than many hawks, on this jaunt. But, seeing the terrain and underbrush we were in made me thankful that we did not see some of what I am sure are present as wildlife in this area, i.e. mountain lions and rattlesnakes to be specific!