![]() ![]() We were tossed every which way as we clung tightly to the ropes of a raft that seemed to bend almost in half. The moment our vessel plunged past the point of no return, we were doused by water so cold it shocked us, even in the heat of midsummer. Some of them sent waves of more than 30 feet crashing upon us. On the 188 miles of Colorado River that we traveled, we endured no fewer than 69 sets of named rapids. An average of 300 feet wide and 40 feet deep, this river is a world-class challenge. Below Arizona’s Glen Canyon Dam, which holds back Lake Powell, the Colorado may carry twice that much water at a modest flow. That’s a lot of water.īut it pales compared to the Grand. Between its walls, the Snake River will often run at 50,000 cubic feet per second. Hells Canyon is deeper by nearly 2,000 feet than the Grand Canyon itself. Our biggest previous adventure had been on Hells Canyon of the Snake River, where it draws the boundary between Oregon and Idaho. From Oregon’s Rogue to Montana’s Flathead, the Rio Grande in New Mexico to the Middle Fork of the Salmon in Idaho, we had challenged our share of whitewater. Photographer Barb Gonzalez and I crossed it off ours last August, when we joined a commercial trip with Western River Expeditions for six days of whitewater adventure. When outdoors lovers speak of “bucket list” experiences, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River is very often right at the top of their lists.
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