We went on a smooth water raft trip on the Colorado River.
The trip leaves from below the Glen Canyon Dam. You board a bus that takes you down the 2 mile tunnel from the canyon rim to the river. The tunnel was originally built to provide a route for the concrete trucks that poured the concrete for the dam. It took 3 years to pour all the concrete for the dam. Because of entering so near the dam you are subject to Homeland Security rules so you can't bring any bags, purses, backpacks or anything considered a weapon. Walt had to leave his pocketknife with security until we got back.
Plus we got to wear hardhats for our trip down the catwalk to the rafts.
You are immediately aware of the height of the dam and the canyon walls.
David was our guide and was knowledgeable and friendly. He pointed out many sights and gave background on the area and answered all of our questions. We had a diverse group on our raft. Some from Australia, Israel, Finland, Italy and a few of us from the U.S.
There were a couple of other rafts and some private boats on the river. The private boats put in at Lee's Ferry 15 miles from the dam.
The canyon walls are from 700 to 1000 feet high.
The Colorado River is 1450 miles long and I was surprised when we were down on it how wide it is. When you view it from the rim it looks like a skinny little ribbon.
This is the only permanent waterfall in Glen Canyon. They have named it Little Niagra. Talk about poetic license. It comes from seepage from Lake Powell. About 2000 gallons of water seeps through the sandstone walls per minute in different places along the river from Lake Powell.
The day was absolutely perfect. September is a great time to go. Beautiful blue skies but not too hot and everything is still green.
The Desert Varnish on the sandstone walls made beautiful designs. Our guide explained that how it formed but I had to go look it up to remember. Desert Varnish is the thin dark coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid regions. Desert varnish is composed of clay minerals, oxides and hydroxides of manganese and iron, along with other trace elements. The predominante elements are Manganese and Iron. It forms a very thin layer that can take up to 2000 years to accumulate.
This rock formation is called The Monk. Yes, I can see his hood and robe.
The Colorado River was named for its color.........ruddy for all the reddish brown silt in it. But, the Glen Canyon Dam stops that for this part of the river so the color is so pretty. It changes depending upon the depth, the shadows, or the color of the sky.
Looking straight up a cliff with interesting Desert Varnish stripes.
We had a stop at Horseshoe Bend. 
This is a photo I took in April from the rim above. See the little beach? That is where the raft docked so we could stretch our legs, use the restroom and take a little hike to see the Petroglyphs.
The Native Americans chipped through the Desert Varnish to reveal the lighter sandstone behind to make their pictures. The guide indicated that the steps shown appear to refer to the path up the river a ways that they used to get down to the river level. Another is probably a hunter and the mountain sheep he killed.
A line of antelope?
Looking up to the Horseshoe Bend view point where I took the picture from the rim. Those people are WAY too close to the edge for my comfort. We hollered hello up to them but they didn't reply. The canyon did though. We got a nice echo.
It was such a pleasant comfortable way to see this gorgeous canyon.
We saw several fishermen and most of them were catching some. The guide said the river is full of various kinds of trout and that the fishing is VERY good.
This little cove had emerald green water.
Other places were still enough to have perfect reflections of the cliffs in the water.
Even where there was motion in the water the reflections were note worthy.
We did see some wild life. This great blue heron, an osprey and a coyote ambling along side the river. I was too busy watching them to take pictures.
Another place that the water seeps through from the lake. This one was so lush and green.
The return trip comes to an end all too soon.
Heading in to dock the raft.
There is the bus waiting to take us back up through that 2 mile long tunnel. If you have claustrophobia you don't want to go!
Heading back to Kanab with the sun going down creating a blaze of color on the hills.
Spectacular close to a spectacular day. We were heading west and I was thinking if we continued west as fast as possible we could perhaps be in a perpetual sunset until we hit the Pacific Ocean.
"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."
Some BIG travel plan changes. Update on next post.