© Jillian Robinson

© Kiet Voung

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Floating down the river, the group boat calls us on the radio we’ve brought to facilitate our TV production. They’ve just spotted a herd of bighorn sheep on our river right. I am delighted. I had said that I wanted to see bighorn sheep a couple of days earlier. I had never seen one in the wild and now we were about to!

Lew carefully steers our boat to the riverbank. Three adult and two lambs are perched on a bluff. They pause and look at us. We look back, quietly. Lew cuts the engine and we excitedly pull out our cameras. Each of us is engaged with a camera and we are in complete silence, if not awe. It is amazing that these sheep are standing for us, with us. Our presence doesn’t seem to bother them at all. After a period of suspended time, the spell breaks, gently. The sheep give us one last look and then saunter into the recesses of the cliff. We break our silence with moans of exultation. None of us can quite believe what we’ve just experienced. Lew’s twin brother and co-producer, Gail drives cattle when he is not making TV shows. In his twenty-five years working on the land, he has never had such an intense and prolonged experience with bighorn sheep. We received another gift today.

I am writing my notes from our penultimate campsite, Lower National. The sun is setting on the now pink, green and gray walls. A pair of hawks soars near a backlit cliff. I feel at peace.

I came on this trip for a work assignment, but found much more. I have been deeply touched by this canyon; I see that its power will grab you, whether you seek it or not.

As I reflect on what has been a truly magical day and glorious days of the past, I remember a powerful quote from "Delightful Journey." I take out my now tattered river copy and, somehow not surprisingly, open it to the exact page I wanted. These are Goldwater’s words, but tonight, I feel I could have written them:

"Lying here tonight, looking up at the stars in a clear Arizona heaven that is cut into jigsaw pieces by the sharp outline of towering canyon walls, I have allowed myself the most gratifying of experiences - toying with memory… I think of all the happy days of my life, and I am not surprised to find that they are legion. Up there in the wall, I see a face created by moonlight and shadows that looks like an old bewiggled judge. It reminds me to judge life gently for life has dealt with me in that manner and has been generous, besides… My opinion, after a careful review of my case, compels me to judge myself as a possessor of a full and happy past, a future more rosy than our sunset tonight, and a present more clear and sparkling than the sky that now becomes my blanket."

Thank you, Barry, for giving me shoulders to stand on during this delightful river journey. I have seen farther because of you.

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