Down the River: Geotripper Goes Geo-Rafting

I'm on the verge of one of my great life adventures. Sunday morning, I'll be rolling over the Paria Riffles (below) on the first day of a 226 mile journey down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I've never done it, and I've always wanted to, and after 40 years of waiting, it's happening. I'm excited to have the chance to explore the depths of the canyon pretty much for the first time. I've hiked to the river on three or four occasions, at Hance Creek and Bright Angel Creek, but those trips were decades ago, and had little to do with the river itself.

Of course, there is no communicating with the outside world, so Geotripper will be on hiatus for a couple of weeks. If you are new to this blog, this is a great chance to catch up on some of the past Geotripper series on the Colorado Plateau, the Sierra Nevada, and other wonderful parts of the world. They're listed below...

See you all in a few weeks! With pictures, I hope, assuming I don't drop the camera in the river!

The Other California: what to see when you've seen all the really famous places in the Golden State (in progress).

Vagabonding Across the 39th Parallel: A journey through the geological wonderland in central Nevada, Utah and Colorado in 2011.

A Convergence of Wonders, a compilation of posts on our journey through the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rocky Mountains in 2011.

The Abandoned Lands, a compilation of posts on our journey around the margins of the Colorado Plateau in 2012.

Time Beyond Imagining: A "Brief" History of the Colorado Plateau - this was an extended exploration of the geology of one of the great geological showplaces on planet Earth

Under the Volcano and Into the Abyss: Yosemite National Park - Exploring a few of the lesser known corners of Yosemite Valley, from below and from above

The Airliner Chronicles: My First Blog Series - Seeing geology from the perspective of seven miles above.