Canyons and Rivers
Originally Published April 9, 2022
We glided through mint jelly eddies and ripples as we floated down the Colorado River. We’d been taken upriver to just south of the Glen Canyon Dam, to travel down the river by kayak, through Horseshoe Canyon and back to Lee's Ferry.
The day before, we had taken our most daunting hike. Cathedral Wash, reported to be an easy hike down to the river and back, instead turned out to be a schooling in rock climbing and seat of the pants descents. At one point we encountered a group watching a mother below, stuck on an overhanging shelf. Her terrified son was screaming "we’re all gonna die!” We sympathized. They backtracked, as we had many times, and eventually made it to safety.
The next day a Navajo guide took us through the Upper Antelope Canyon, an underground Zaha Hadid like vortex carved out of the sandstone. Thousands of years of sediment had accrued and solidified into stone, to then be sculpted by the flash floods that come down the ravines.
The Colorado River sustains much of the southwest, including Southern California. In fact, Southern California probably wouldn’t exist without the Colorado River. The Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams manage the water for seven states in the west, and also provide hydroelectric power to these, as well as some states to the east. At Glen Canyon, the level referred to as "dead pool" below which the dam can no longer produce electricity, is anticipated to be reached by July of this year. Below that level the 100 year old agreements between the states sharing the water will be threatened as well.
Welcome to the movie "Chinatown."
