299 Days to Go - Hopi Salt Mine & Carbon Creek

Sacred Hopi Salt mine

TL Report: Hey, heads up, our Sept 1st deposit was due this past Weds! Thanks to everyone who sent me your money. Please contact me if you haven't sent me the dinero.

The final trip balance is due Jan 15, 2011.

 Please put this on your calendars.

Hopi Salt seaping from Tapeats Sandstone

Mileage This post: River mile 63-70. Leaving the Little Colorado River confluence means we are exiting Marble Canyon and entering Grand Canyon. This also means it's gonna get HOT. The walls of Marble Canyon are much steeper than Grand Canyon (= more shade) and we will feel the difference. On the other hand, now we will get to see the truly grand vistas of Grand Canyon in all its spectacular glory. So, after we've had a blast playing in the Little Colorado River (LCR), we will start downstream and on river left we will pass the Hopi Salt mine from river mile 63.5 to 65. This is actual table salt that seeps from the Tapeats sandstone near the mouth of the LCR. For hundreds and hundreds of years, the Hopi Indians traveled into the Canyon to connect this precious substance. As this is a sacred site to the Hopi and other Native Americans, these mines are closed to visitation.

"View" from the Desert View Watchtower above

At river rile 64, we can look up to the South Rim and see the Desert View Watchtower which is visible looking straight down river. The structure was designed by Mary Colter (who designed many of the GC lodges including Phantom Ranch), and was completed in 1932.

At river mile 65 we'll pass Carbon Creek Camp and Canyon. This is a lovely side hike with a waterfall that we may stop at. At river mile 66, we'll run class 4 Lava Canyon Rapid (not to be confused with Lava Falls later in the trip!) and at river mile 69 we'll run class 4 Tanner Rapid (see below). This is a wide, long, moderately mild rapid dropping over 20 feet.

Tanner Rapid

I found this quote about Tanner Camp in someone's GC journal:

Down at last by the Tanner Rapids, where the canyon is relatively wide, we found several pleasant sandy beaches to sport ourselves in. At first we didn't sport much, being too bushed to concern ourselves with much more than filtering water for dinner. But fifteen minutes later we had the caloric power of olive oil, olives, and anchovies -- along with a bottle of red -- rushing into our bloodstreams. Gradually, as the daylight waned, our energies waxed anew. We explored the area by moonlight for hours, exploiting our good fortune at finding ourselves in Eden. We slept that night outside the tent, on the sand, under the stars.

GC History: According to legend, in the depths of the LCR abide the spirits of the Hopi. In the dim past, these legends tell, the spirits emerged from the Canyon, and the dead returned to reside in hadean gloom. This exit from the world beneath is known to the Hopi as the Sipapu. Other legends tell of ghostly inhabitants who, arising from the abyss with glowing eyes and monstrous forms, traveled out across the Painted Desert to revisit their earthly homes on the Hopi mesas, where they now maintain a lively and beneficent interest in human affairs. It is natural, therefore that these great canyons, the abode of the dead, should be regarded with wonder and reverence, and that the things found in the canyons are possessed with great mystical powers.

Salt near the river

Hopi Clan Petroglyths

Near the confluence of the LCR in the Tapeats Sandstone, salt leaches out of the rock as water percolates through the coarse grained sands and then evaporates. An ancient trail from the Hope mesas to the salt deposits travels westward across the Painted Desert to the LCR gorge, then plunges down to the river through what today is called the Salt Trail Canyon. Since prehistoric times, people have made this precarious journey, close to the mystical underworld, returning with their heavy burdens. Hopi continue to use salt in ceremonies. Today, the NPS prohibits visitation to the salt mines and only sanctioned visits by the Hopi are allowed.

Info Check:  Here's a fun slideshow of a GC trip in 2007 in slideshow format if you guys have some extra free time. Click here.

Current and next Deadline: $500 per person was due September 1st.  Final trip balance due January 1, 2011. 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.