Grand Canyon, Part 1

This will be the tales of my trip to the Grand Canyon. I'm going to post in a lot of parts, because I want to post a lot of pictures and stories and if I do it all at once, both me and the reader(s) might die in the process of the longest entry EVER.

My mom and I, her friends Karma (3) and Jan, and Karma's niece Karma (4), flew to Las Vegas on June 9th and met in the airport. Karma 4 and I had never met, but I made some random joke that she burst out laughing at, and we looked at each other and realized, oh dear, we have the same sense of humor... this is going to be an awesome week :D We shuttled to a smaller airport in Vegas, and took a small prop plane to Marble Canyon Lodge, stopping at the Bar Ten ranch on the way.

We got lots of awesome views and a bit of a rollar coaster ride. This is me, Karma 4, Karma 3, and Jan in the little plane.

Both my mom and I managed to not take a picture of the lodge, but we do have a good before shot of our group, all showered and not yet sandy and sunburned the morning of the launch.

The day we got in, mom and I collapsed in our hotel and took a nap. Later we went with the Beans and the Philpots to the Hatch store and bought some T-shirts and carribeaners. We ate in the lodge around 7 and met several people that were rafting with us, and I promptly mixed them all up- in my defense, there were 4 Elizabeths.

The next morning we gathered outside the lodge and were picked up by vans for a 10 minute drive to the launch site, Lee's Ferry. This is a shot as we were pulling away.

The rafts we rode on are 35 foot motorized pontoons with a steel frame and industrial rubber tubes. Most of the gear like food and over supplies is packed on the bottom, almost at river level. This is an empty raft at camp later in the trip.

Then they take our night gear and lash it down with tarps and rope.

Then we can get on the raft and clip our stuff to the duffel pile. In rapids and wind, you want everything but yourself attached to the raft.

And with a few safety instructions and a life jacket tightning party, we were off! :D