Grand Canyon 2020: Day 4, nine more miles down the river

While the Grand Canyon has been called a "dead" river, because of the Glen Canyon Dam, I would argue otherwise. One can not dispute the flow of the river is tightly regulated by the government, for power generation, as well as human uses. But within the Grand Canyon, the river is very alive. On day 1, we could see lots of fish in the water, as well as the sandy bottom. But here by day 4 (and earlier also), the fish were gone, as side canyons continue to pour water and sediment into the Colorado River. There are 100s, if not thousands, of side canyons that empty into the river. And this morning we got to hike up another one of them, Saddle Canyon.

During our return to the boat, one of the guides Curtis turned to me and handed me a small plant to examine. I wish I could remember the name of it. I crushed it and it smelled of lemon. This was the first of many times Curtis would take time to share with me or someone else some nugget of canyon flora or fauna. After completing this short hike, we travelled a short way down the river and stopped for lunch.

After lunch, we reached Nanokoweap canyon in the early afternoon. I believe Tommy had planned for us to go farther this day. But upon seeing both camps empty, he stopped and said we were going to camp here that day. It was only around 2:30, and we had only gone 9 miles. No one argued. We set up camp, and set off to the Nankoweap granaries. The natives farmed the mouth of the Nankoweap canyon's fertile soil. They would store grain for the next year's crops high up on the hills in sealed caves. They would seal them by covering them with rock and river mud, and before finishing the process light a small fire inside. The smoke from the fire would show them where to seal better, and when all sealed the fire would use up the oxygen in the cave, helping to preserve their grain. The hike up to the granaries offers some of the most photographed views in the canyon.