Not so Grand Canyon

"This region is, of course, altogether valueless. It can be approached only from the south, and after entering it there is nothing to do but leave. Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River along the greater portion of its lonely and majestic way shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed."

Joseph C. Ives, U.S. Army explorer, 1858

Diamond Creek, Ariz. - It is an understandable place for parting ways if such a thing were to happen in the Grand Canyon.

Separation Canyon, mile 239 of the Colorado River's tumultuous journey through the Grand Canyon, is where three members of Major John Wesley Powell's original 1869 expedition through the uncharted gorge had decided they had had enough.

The exploratory party's provisions had dwindled to flour, coffee and dried apples, and their boats were battered from an endless succession of harrowing rapids. They had seen enough whitewater, enough portaging, enough starving, enough exploring.

They wanted out.

When they approached what seemed to be the worst rapid yet - later named Separation - brothers Oramel and Seneca Howland and William Dunn gazed upon a long and relatively open canyon leading away from the river and decided to abandon the expedition, opting to take their chances on foot.

After a long night of difficult deliberation, Powell and the remaining five members of the party decided to see the expedition through. They cooked biscuits and divided them among the men along with what remained of the ammunition, and the group split in two and parted ways.

Powell wrote in his journal that his crew ran the rapids without incident and a day later emerged from the Grand Canyon near Grand Wash and made its way to a Mormon settlement at the mouth of the Virgin River. Dunn and the Howland brothers never were seen again.

This same place, striking in its grandness in an otherwise not so grand end to a magnificent, world-famous canyon, is where most river outings through the Grand Canyon near their resolution.

A lot of effort is required to experience it. Most would agree it is worthwhile.

Everyone knows about the awe-inspiring vistas of the Grand Canyon easily glimpsed from the bustling south rim village, one of the most visited and civilized places in the country's far-flung parks system. One can literally drive to an overlook and see the famous sites through the vehicle's windshield without out even stepping outside.

The average time spent gazing into the great hole has been estimated at 30 minutes. From one vantage point it probably is enough.

Get down into the canyon and it becomes another matter altogether. Hike down a few miles and one's appreciation of the term "grand" changes dramatically. Hiking to the bottom and back is a humbling lesson in physical endurance and self-reliance.

In the maw of Lava Falls, scariest of the rapids.

Raft through it, and it changes your life. I encourage acquaintances to do the long voyage through the Grand Canyon whatever the cost and commitment because it undoubtedly will become their reference points for adventure travel thereafter. It will be the experience against which succeeding ones will be compared.

Commercial outfitters typically split their rafting trips into five distinct packages. At one end of the spectrum, motorized trips power through the canyon in about a week. At the other end is supervised paddling in six-person rafts that accompany larger oar-driven outings. The oar trips, in which guides row guests in large rubber rafts, either travel the entire length of the canyon, a two-week journey, or break it into two segments, from Lees Ferry at the upper end to Bright Angel Creek and Phantom Ranch, or from Bright Angel Creek to the bottom end and Lake Mead. The segmented trips involve hiking into or out of the canyon.

The entire outing is a spectacular experience, permitting participants to explore caves, waterfalls, side canyons and intersecting creeks that can't be easily experienced if at all in any other way.

Anasazi petroglyphs far into the canyon.

The commercial trips end just past Separation Canyon, where participants are ferried down to Lake Mead and back to civilization on large motorized barges, while guides typically transport the rafts down the remaining segment overnight.

Still not enough?

Keep in mind the vast majority of Colorado River trips through the Grand Canyon wrap up at mile 225's Diamond Creek access point on the 1 million-acre Hualapai Indian Reservation in northwest Arizona, the little-known truth is that some 60 miles of the canyon remain downstream from the take-out. The Hualapai Tribe and the National Park Service will allow two separate parties of up to 16 people can purchase first-come, first-served permits to launch and float the "Diamond Down" stretch daily. Permits within Grand Canyon National Park are good for only 18 days. Below Diamond Creek, there is no time limit.

The canyon below Diamond Creek can be divided into three sections - although at least four days are advised. All of the whitewater comes in the first 14 miles, about a half-dozen named rapids of the high-volume class III-IV variety.

Several other named rapids - some considered among the most ferocious within the entire 280-mile canyon - have disappeared because of the creation of Lake Mead and sediment gathered at the river mouth. But now that a full four years of Western drought have lowered water levels in Lake Mead, the river continues its meandering journey nearly the entire distance.

Any misgivings were put to rest five miles into the trip, where we were rewarded with a short hike into the grotto of Travertine Falls - a warm, spring-fed creek cascading over a limestone playground.

"This is definitely one of the best hikes in the Grand Canyon," one hiker observed after climbing the walls and plunging into the pools.

Back on the river, the whitewater intensifies below Travertine Falls, then settles down at Separation, nine miles downstream. The (unofficial) second section begins here, where a mild current carries boaters past unparalleled scenery similar to that found in the upriver portions of the canyon, which that people have been known to wait more than a decade and pay thousands of dollars to view. In years past, the river stalled out completely at Separation Canyon. Now it flows at a comfortable pace that allowed us to notch a full 32 miles after a noon launch.

Campsites high on the river banks became less frequent or altogether unattainable as we approached the end of the canyon at mile 280 (the third section), although we still managed to find ample room to rest weary shoulders on soft, sandy beaches not marked on the river map. Indeed, much of the standard river guide (The Colorado River in the Grand Canyon: A Guide, by Larry Stevens, Red Lake Books) is rendered inaccurate because of the receding lake.

The former take-out at Pierce Ferry, for instance, is high and dry, forcing boaters to continue downstream to Iceberg Canyon, where Lake Mead now begins, and about five miles farther to the boat ramp at South Cove.

For that reason, the trip is better suited to raft support and an outboard motor for the final slog through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area beginning below the Hualapai Indian Reservation at mile 276. Outboard motors are allowed below Separation Canyon. The convenience of a motor allows boaters to savor the full 71 miles with far more than a ration of dried fruit and coffee, and without time constraint.

Smart packing enables even less-experienced kayak paddlers to put together a self-support trip in this all-but-forgotten portion of the Grand Canyon. Just keep in mind that although the permit regulations of the Diamond Down section are less stringent than upstream (no satellite phone requirement, for example), a strict "leave no trace" ethic remains, demanding some clever "pack it out" boat packing.

For those not interested in a do-it-yourself river trip, the Hualapai Tribe River Runners also offer one- and two-day motorized cruises from Diamond Creek, capped off with a helicopter ride back to the reservation.

Copyright Gary Olson 2010 First published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune