Barry Goldwater running a rapid.
© Arizona Historical Foundation

Barry Goldwater
© Arizona Historical Foundation

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Day Two: Bugs, Rocks & Stars

After a dawn photography hike up North Canyon, Lew effortlessly guides our crew boat through North Canyon Rapid. Lew is one of the TV show’s producers and a veteran river guide.

As we travel through the "20 Mile Rapids", Lew tells me about his experience with Goldwater. It turns out he interviewed Goldwater for an oral history project on river runners! Here we are, in the middle of the river, with over 2 billion years of history enveloping us, and I am learning new stories about Goldwater: How he wanted to run certain rapids and got frustrated when his trip leader would decide to portage them. Or how the kind of boats Goldwater used make our rafts look like luxury vessels. Funny how it can be such a thrill to track someone’s long-ago footsteps.

As we move deeper into the Canyon, Lew talks about the geology here. I know almost nothing about this subject but am mesmerized as Lew’s words wash over me. As Goldwater said,

"I feel that I should say something about a fascinating subject many light years away from my sphere of knowledge-geology; specifically, the geology of the Colorado River canyons. I have never taken the subject seriously, but the sights I have seen in the past two days have made me wonder if I am not missing one of the better studies of life ... No place on this planet furnishes a more complete digest of the earth’s history than does this father of canyons. Of the five major divisions into which geologists have calendared the earth, traces of all of them are apparent here."

day two: continued >>

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