Lee's Ferry (from October)

Jumping around... in October we drove from southwest Utah to Flagstaff, and along the way I spotted a location that might be interesting to check out.  Lee's Ferry, the launch site for Grand Canyon river rafting trips.  Since we'll be here in a year, it seemed appropriate to do a little scouting.  Unsurprisingly, John agreed  :)

Happily, we snagged a spot in the campground - it's popular and it's first come, first served, so we tried to time it early in the day and felt lucky to end up in a nice pull-through.  With background scenery that made us smile.  A lot:

Plenty of time remaining in the day for a little bike/hike adventure:

We rode over to the boat launch site - yes, this appears to be the right place:

A rafting group preparing for the next day - have fun, y'all!

Next September we should be setting off down this lovely stretch of river:

Anything with a solar panel will pique John's interest:

The PRO van, the outfitter we'll be using:

One last look at the launch area - see you again in a few months!

Until proven otherwise, I declare this "the most scenic dump station in the world":

I mean, come on:

We rode up the road in the other direction, pausing to admire the balanced rock along the way:

Mmmm, cake... although I'm not a fan of red velvet (I still have flashbacks to a particular race in Las Vegas), I do like the Vermillion Cliffs that they represent:

We locked up the bikes to do a little hike down a canyon - I'd heard good things about Cathedral Wash, and it did not disappoint.  In fact, it was a tad more adventurous than I had expected.  We did some scrambling in the middle section that was more than a "tourist" hike normally requires.  John, of course, loved it.  I was too busy focusing on my hands and feet there to get a photo, but here's a smiling John:

I loved all the rest of it, the curvy shapes and interesting layers and challenge of figuring out what level to trek along so you don't have to backtrack:

We need to put more canyoneering quests in our future plans.  Let me know if you want to join us.

The walls getting higher as we get closer to the river:

And there it is again, the Colorado River, just a little bit closer to the Grand Canyon:

Another spot we're looking forward to seeing (from a raft) next year:

And that's it for Lee's Ferry - just a short little post for today, as I work my way virtually closer to our present time and location.