The two bridges--old one on left

Boat trip heading down river

The beautiful Colorado at Navajo Bridge

This river used to be silty until the Glen Canyon Dam

These huge boulders fall off the top of the cliff, then the softer rock erodes away and this is what's left. Pretty amazing.

Me getting my feet wet in the Colorado at Paria Rapids

Building remains at historic Lee's Ferry

Sat, 7/4/09

Kaibab Camper Village, Jacob Lake, AZ: Another beautiful, sunny morning. Decided to drive back to historic Lee’s Ferry and the Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River. Stopped at the Jacob Lake Inn for breakfast and then we were on our way. Drove down off the Kaibab Plateau on a series of switchbacks through the rocky hills and then into the vast Rock House Valley. This huge, arid valley has the Vermillion Cliffs on one side and Echo Cliffs in the distance on the other. The road we’re on is the only paved road in 2.8 million acres of public land. There are several other impressive canyons along this drive through this valley that would be landmarks themselves—but here they’re just another canyon—dwarfed by the Grand Canyon. Parked at the Navajo Interpretive Center by the bridge. I don’t know who designed this complex, but it blends in so well with the surrounding cliffs. There are two bridges here—the latest one built in the mid-1990s I believe and the other was built in 1928 and closed when the new one was built. We walked out to the middle of the original bridge and took a bunch of pictures of the beautiful, green Colorado River. This river used to be very silty. They used to say that it was too thick to drink and too thin to plow. With the building of Glen Canyon Dam the river is now silt-free. It now has this beautiful blue-green color but it is also cold—45-50 degrees year round. This is because the water is released from the bottom of the dam. Hypothermia is a real issue if you fall in. Leaving there we drove six miles up the road to Lee’s Ferry. This is River Mile 0 and is where most—if not all—river trips start. We explored the historic building ruins and then watched a river raft group setting up for a trip. Parked near where the Paria River flows into the Colorado and walked over to a little beach on the Colorado. Watched a raft trip float by on the Paria Rapids. Looks like fun. They camp on the beaches on the river. No tents—just sleeping bags. On one trip a girl half in her sleeping bag awoke to find a rattle snake coiled up on her chest. I think I’d want to sleep on the boat. It was 99 degrees down there. Drove back to Jacob Lake playing a CD of Sousa marches played by the US Marine Corps Band. Happy Birthday America! Back at our camp site it was 76 degrees. Sat outside for a while reading and listening to the wind soughing through the beautiful green pines against the deep blue sky. Burgers tonight for dinner. After dinner we listened to “A Prairie Home Companion” on NPR. Great show!