Here's the Grand Canyon chapter of my blog. It's probably better to read it in chronological order, which means skipping down to the picture of me with the Statue of Liberty in Las Vegas and then working your way back up. Click on any picture to zoom in.
This was a trip like nothing I've ever done; I'd go back in a second if I could, and stay. I loved everything about it: the river, the hikes, the people, the lifestyle...My pictures are by no means complete, but piecing together everybody's photos helps to patch it all together.
For MANY more, see:
Clay and Anthony's pictures
Andres and Amy's
Debbie's
Tan's, including some pretty amazing videos
Pang's
Chrissy's
I'll keep adding links here as I get them. I didn't have a waterproof camera so I have none of rapids or swimming or hikes which required swimming. Also no pictures of some of the best hikes, like the exquisite oasis in the canyon of Matkatamiba, or of swimming up the slot canyon and travertine-dam pools of Havasu. The last day was sad for me - an early start, a few (weepy I admit) minutes in the boat, derigging the boats in record time, an anticlimactic long wait for the schoolbus, and a bumpy 1-hour ride up Diamond Creek wash and through the dismal reservation town of Peach Springs, to meet the coach and ride back via Hoover Dam to the culture shock of Las Vegas.

Thunderstorm brewing, on a hot still day near the end of the trip.

Andres rowing, Amy and Dave

Looking back upstream at Vulcan's Anvil, a volcanic plug sitting right in the river just above Lava Falls.

Jimmy, extraordinary person and legendary river guide, took very good care of my father and me. After hundreds of trips down Grand Canyon and a lifetime of adventure travel, he has amazing, spectacular, scary, beautiful stories of the Canyon, Alaska, Tanzania, his military service, his EMT work...we can't wait to see the movie!!

Jimmy's work-your-way sidekick Lester, Low Elevation Sherpa (turns out his real name is Paul). Lester toted a huge video camera (and a big still camera) through Grand Canyon and we REALLY want to see his footage! In particular, we dropped him off above Lava Falls, where he hiked down to a good vantage point and then filmed everyone going through the rapids. Lava Falls is the culmination of the Grand Canyon rapids - a giant 37' drop over a couple of hundred yards, and the excitement and anxiety about running Lava Falls brews as the day approaches. We ran it in Jimmy's boat, and we and Trey were the only ones to go right, which is the only possible run at low water but a wild ride at high water. It was AWESOME....

Debbie squashing Jeff into a paco-pad burrito

This is a long shady gallery on the first part of the hike up to Whispering Spring. We hiked about 2 hours up Kanab Creek, and then turned right into a dry side canyon. Another half hour or so up and we reached a beautiful, deep pool set in a shady cave. We dove and swam, some of us more daring than others!!!

Here's our guide Lyndsay, after a swim in the spring. Lyndsay let me take one oar through a rapid early in the trip, and I was totally hooked. I think she decided that being a Grand Canyon river guide was the MOST fun job in the world, and so that's what she became, in the summer, and she teaches snowboarding in the winter, and travels...she has amazing enthusiasm and charm, knows a huge amount about Grand Canyon and has an incredible sense of humor. Plus she made the critically important BUCKET suggestion, yeah!

View of the boats from the top of the Stairmaster part of the trail, Deer Creek

Looking downstream

Deer Creek falls

Roger having a quiet moment above the upper falls at Deer Creek

Andres

Trilobites!

Conquistador Aisle

Trey had us totally snowed with a long story about how Walt Disney was going to build a resort, and their baggage raft flipped and everything was lost, and a piano ended up way up on a cliff.
Our days with Trey were perfect. He is serene and sweet, can spin a great yarn, tell a joke...he is a born teacher and kept me enthralled with geology for hours. We miss you!

Short hike up a slot canyon to a little waterfall

Jeff, ready for PACO PAD SUMO WRESTLING!! You can't use your arms, and the object is to knock your opponent onto his/her back, or out of the ring.

Our guide Dave, ready for action.
When not sumo wrestling, Dave is as mellow as can be, tells great jokes, knows geology inside and out, taught me to catch eddies, has a dog named Eddy, and has great arms (right, Amy?). With Dave we explored and raided Six-Pack Eddy which almost lived up to its name (3 Heinekens and 2 Diet Cokes). And best of all - Dave let Andres and me swim through a couple of rapids (which were probably small, but seemed huge), which was SO AMAZINGLY fun.

Jeff and El Gringo Loco, both down!

Andres getting psyched for his round...

Beautiful camp...who knew what craziness would occur?!?

Every geologist should spend time in the Grand Canyon; nothing I've ever seen comes as close to giving you a physical sense of geologic time. Here is the Precambrian Vishnu Schist intruded by pink Zoroaster Granite.

Cardenas lava dike at Hance Rapid?

The Great Unconformity (Cambrian Tapeats sandstone I'm pretty sure, overlying Proterozoic schist)

"Boating is a beautiful thing" said Trey...right on!
Learning to row those heavy boats with huge long oars, through little rapids, catching and escaping eddies, learning to push row with the right technique, and getting a workout from it…I loved it all. Just riding in the boats was wonderful too – drifting, thinking, daydreaming, talking, telling stories and singing, having water fights, and mostly, listening to the guides’ stories and information about the geology, biology and history of Grand Canyon. And their jokes!
Now I REALLY understand what my father has been saying when he says that if he had done this trip when he was 20 he would have figured out how to stay and make a life there.

Amy Lewis and calm water

El Gringo Loco (Kyle modeling his 30th birthday present, which he picked up at the post office at Phantom Ranch)

7/8 of the Indianapolis gang from the 1st half - we missed you!
This oar trip was organized so that people who wanted to do just a 1-week trip could hike out or in at Bright Angel. Ten of our friends left us to hike out at the crack of dawn the morning of July 10th. We waited that day at Pipe Creek for thirteen new people who were hiking in. It sounds like the hike down was tough, and the hike out more so.