Naked Wild and Free in the Grand Canyon: Rowing and Roaming

River runners are a notoriously wild and crazy bunch. This book contains a small taste of the adventures enjoyed by a communal group of friends from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The author was fortunate enough to be included on four river trips which took place between 1969 and 1975. These adventures involved descents of the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon and the Grand Canyon, the Yampa River through Dinosaur National Monument and Echo Park, and the Green River through the Gates of Lodor, Grays Canyon, Desolation Canyon and Canyonlands National Park. The rafts were of our own design and took a lot of muscle to row through the numerous white water rapids. The pace was leisurely, with plenty of time allowed for each trip. Our passage through the Grand Canyon, for example, was designed to take more than a month. Riding the river for only 2 or 3 hours a day meant plenty of time for hiking, climbing, caving and enjoying the endless varieties of pools and waterfalls which can be found sometimes far up in the side canyons. Spending weeks at a time on the river also meant getting to know each more deeply and allowing the spirit of the canyon rock-scapes to enter our beings more fully. It felt like we were truly living in those canyons, not just passing through. This book contains an expanded version of the written journal kept by the author during a passage through the lower half of the Grand Canyon in 1975. Some of the photos included are from other earlier trips. Venturing down the rivers and canyons of the American West we touch sacred and primal worlds, both outside and inside ourselves. Anyone who has enjoyed such an adventure knows about this. This journal gives a taste of how it looked and felt to our crazy crew.