383 Days to Go - Redwall Cavern

TL Report: Woo Hoo, got to confirm my good friend and fellow Egleston RN, Amy, on the first half of the trip. It's always fun to introduce someone to wilderness river travel, especially on the Canyon. She'll be the nurse on the trip, so if you have any problems, concerns, aches or pains (or even just want your feet rubbed), she's your girl. Oh, and she'd love to hear all about your medical history, right down to the nitty gritty ingrown toe nail stuff, so feel free to grab her after dinner and share that with her too.

Here is a NPS map of the South Rim and it's associated lodging. If you are planning on calling for lodging July 1st this may help you decide where to stay. The trailhead to Bright Angel is a little hard to see, but it's just to the left of the Kolb Studio. I'll cover shuttle info to and from Flag - South Rim next week.

What the GC Private Boaters Assoc is chatting about this week: Good lord, everyone is still ticked about firewood season being limited. Thats about it.

Mileage this week: River Mile 33-35. At river mile 32.2 We have the Redwall Cavern Dam Site. A tramway cable was constructed in 1951 from the top of the Redwall to the east rim, 2,500 feet overhead. Imagine this beautiful place underwater, with the water backed all the way to Lee’s Ferry and you get the picture.

Redwall Cavern (below), at river mile 33.3 on river left, is one of my favorite places on the river. It’s definitely a great place to have lunch, play Frisbee, goof off and relax. The high water in 1957 filled this cavern when the Colorado was flowing over 120.000 cfs.

I like the MOENKOPI "people" above. This is one of the photos our outfitter, Moenkopi Riverworks, uses on their website. The photo on the left is from inside Redwall Cavern looking out.



Nautiloid Canyon at river mile 35 on river left is a great side canyon hike with cool nautilus fossils in the floor of the drainage. This side canyon also offers shade in the summer. There's a bit of a climb to enter this canyon (bottom, left) but it's well worth it. The right pix is looking downstream from the mouth of Nautiloid. The river is running green in this pix but since we will be there in July (Monsoon), it will probably run brown.

Check out the Nautilus below.

GC History: (about Redwall Cavern) August 8, 1969: The water sweeps rapidly in this elbow of river, and has cut it's way under the rock, excavating a vast half-circular chamber, which, if utilized for a theater, would give seating to 50,000 people.  - The Powell Report

Equipment/Camp Check: Shoes. Should you Teva (left), Chaco (middle) or perhaps Keen (right)? It's up to you but here's the deal on shoes for the trip. You need TWO sets of broken in river shoes. River shoes consist of something that straps to your foot securely (in case of a swim) and has a good climbing tread (side canyon scrambling). We Hesters are not buying Tevas anymore as Bill has had two sets of soles delaminate in the last year. I am going for a new pair of Keens and my trusty 20 year old pair of Chacos. You may or may not want a pair of sneakers for camp/side hiking/Phantom exchange, that's up to you. You can easily wear your second pair of river shoes with clean socks in camp for Tolio-free feet. I feel the need to stress that any shoes need to be broken in. Blisters on the Canyon basically, well, suck.You need two pairs because if you lose one in a flip/swim (or if the scorpions carry them away in the night), the nearest store is back in Flagstaff :-).

Next Deadline: $500 per person is due September 1st. If your trip status changes at anytime (ie, need to do a half instead of a whole trip), please let me know as soon as possible so we can fill your ½ space. This will lower your cost.

Comments, questions, concerns? Email me and I’ll include it in the next post. The comment link isn’t working correctly.