River Journal 9-3-25
- Kenzie Slottow
- Sep 23
- 8 min read
Day 4 “Pretty Waterfall Day:" Mile 110 to Mile 145 (Below Kanab Camp, aka Cozy Camp)
Wednesday September 3rd, 2025
Lucky for me, Day 4 was not another long rapid day. After the coffee conch, I took some notes while tiny birds - or bats? - flitted around in the tall grasses next to our tents in the dawn light. There were certainly birds in this patch of tall grass yesterday evening. But as the light crept in from the canyon rim I recognized the erratic flying pattern, and left my notes for later to avoid rabies! The Slottow camp was slow to pack this morning, out of our routine with the addition of the tents and we didn't know know how to roll them properly. After our fire line loading routine, we set off, and a pair of big ravens landed promptly to pick over our crumbs.
The day was overcast and gray, which was welcome after the hot sun the last two days and the strenuous rapids yesterday. We were close to the South Rim that we had started to see on Day 2. We passed by old asbestos mines, then around the first bend, we could see the angled disturbance in the walls of Monument Fault Line. Inspired by the ever-changing geology, I borrowed Becky's Belknap’s River Guide and decided I would from this point forward be Geology Guy. Kim, the actual geologist passenger, was on the other raft. Marc and JT knew plenty about the geology of the canyon and came to show us every now and came to point out rock formations and tell stories every once in a while, but there was lots more to learn in the book! This morning we continued through the metamorphic rock, the river having carved deep into the earth's layers. Maybe this was good fertilizer for all the greenery, because the banks became grassy. It seemed we would not have nearly as many rapids today, and as we disembarked at 9am for our first hike, my homesickness had subsided. The side canyon, Elves Chasm, was a creek fit for all sorts of fantasy creatures, full of waterfalls, pools, moss and ferns. One of the guides had brought some bright feather hair decorations for the others, so they donned their Pretty Waterfall Day hair ornaments and off we went. A melodious falling birdcall sang and added to the whimsy as we ascended. Scott, a decades-long lover of Grand Canyon, knew it to be the elusive Canyon Wren, and counted it a sign of good fortune.
The hikeable portion of Elves Chasm ended in a lovely waterfall, with an opening 15 or 20 feet up where the water ran over a large cupped indentation in the rock it had carved. After we had all had our chance at family photos in the picturesque spot, Lattimer surprised us by swimming across the pool to check the depth, and then giving meticulous instructions on how to jump from that cupped opening into the pool - stressing that it was imperative for each jumper to clear the ledge of rock below, and thereby land safely in the deeper water. After a practical demonstration by Lattimer, Dan the marine kicked us off. Nate and Sam jumped with little hesitation. Naomi, the only loner on the trip, and gleeful but quiet thrill seeker, jumped and looked like she would have happily done it 3 more times. I will admit that my participation was mostly spurred by not wanting to be left out once both my siblings had jumped. The climb behind the falls was very slippery, I went slow checking each foot and handhold, with Bethany close behind me. Near the top, the last few holds were more of a climb, and Lat was waiting to suggest hand and footholds. I nearly slipped anyway, but managed to catch myself and heave up and over the front, to slide down into the rock cup where there were clearly only two correct places to set one's feet, or slide right off the edge. I stood there longer than the other jumpers, and got some laughs for shouting “It’s kinda high up!” but eventually Sam counted me off and I jumped out and had a good time of it. Bethany, after me, also commented on the height to our audience before leaping. Then it was Will's turn: Will had climbed in behind us, but after some time had not emerged out the front of the waterfall into the jumping area. At last, Lattimer emerged from the cave below, informing us that “we’ve got a small head wound,” followed by Will. Will's expression was stoic and calm, which was incongruous with the line of bright red blood trailing down his whole face. The group all let out an involuntary, "Ooooh!" when he appeared. Will and Lat stayed up near the falls to butterfly the shallow but copiously bleeding wound, while the rest of us headed back down to the rafts.
Later, at the end of the trip, I got the story from Will. He said the bump had been LOUD, but he didn’t feel it immediately afterward, and told Lat, “I’m fine.” Climbing down to meet him, Lat calmly replied, “Ok, but no, you’re not," and led him back out the way they came, with the suggestion that Will might keep his head out of the water on the return swim. I thought privately that though it was ugly, Will could never complain of not having any adventure on this trip, after Crystal Rapids and now this!
About four miles later we stopped for our next excursion: Blacktail Canyon at 10:45am. Tapeats sandstone rose up all around us as we hiked the dry creek bed. It seemed a different planet from Elves Chasm! As we trekked between the sandstone cliffs, bedrock rose in a layer below. We could reach out and touched the smooth vishnu schist with its shining multi-colored mineral deposits, and trace the veins of pink and white granite. The two layers one atop the other represent the Great Unconformity, a billion years of missing information in the geological record. The bedrock is ancient, and the sandstone a billion years younger, though still from a sea long before our time. The rock layers that would tell us what existed in between can be seen in other parts of Grand Canyon, but not here. Lattimer recommended a silent nature walk, and as we went, I heard the call of the canyon wren, and Sam was able to see one with their binoculars. Scott deemed this even more good fortune. As we returned out of the creekbed, we were serenaded with a guitar concert by JT between the boulders. The acoustics were gorgeous. Upon our return the sun was bright and a tuna salad wrap lunch was waiting for us.
Back on the river we continued through Conquistador Aisle - a long calm stretch that Joe and the guides knew casually as “The Face Melt.” We had the luck of cloud cover during this stretch of river. I read the whole Geology chapter of Belknap’s River Guide. The next rapid section of note, Joe called the Subarus, though only the first was officially named: Forster Rapid (not actually after the Subaru). Sam took it upon themself to name the rest as we went: Outback, Empresa, etc. Doug dubbed all of these “a piece of cake” and we considered ourselves old hats at small rapids. Then came Bedrock Rapid with a giant hunk of igneous bedrock, a very technical rapid which we backed into so that Marc could spin the nose on the gravel bar to go forward alongside the obstacle, then weave past the other spike of igneous rock on the right. We made it through with no problems, it was very impressive! I sat up on the coolers because right after Bedrock there was a labeled geology photo facing downstream, where I could match up the different layers of rock with what we saw in front of us! Deubendorff, soon after, was technical too and just fun with no scares.
After this we had a relatively calm stretch, in which Joe told us two fake stories in a row. The first one was that Dolly Parton was a big proponent of the conservation of the canyon and was doing some publicity hang gliding and crashed into a particular spot - that’s where he pointed out what’s actually called the Owl Eyes, two huge boob holes on the river left ridge. That story got lots of eye rolls. Then he immediately launched into one about Powell’s second expedition, where he said Powell’s son was a musician and they were playing all sorts of instruments in side canyons, but eventually had to offload some instruments for weight, and they dumped an upright piano! I could see an upright piano up ahead really clearly, so I shouted it out, and Joe was like, I can’t even see it from here! But as we got closer and closer, I could see it more and more clearly, and more people could see it, and it wasn’t until we were pretty much right up close to it that it proved to be a VERY upright-piano-shaped rock with lots of little white pebbles placed where the keys would be, probably by some extreme jokester river guide. The piano rock definitely fooled me!
Our next stop was Deer Creek Falls, an impressive 150-ft cascade visible from the river. It was a very short hike to get up close to it. The most marvelous view was the shape the falls had carved in the sandstone at the top: whimsical whorls and spirals through smoothed sandstone. There was another group that had hiked up the steep path to the top of the falls and could look down into the creek through the carved narrows. The put-in was crowded with inflatable rowboats. We continued on and camped just after Kanab Rapids, at a medium sized campground called Below Kanab that just barely fit our group. Luckily, we had bonded enough as a traveling group that by this time, we were happy to pack into a tiny area of flat sand at the top of the beach slope, for what I will certainly remember as our coziest camp.
Because of the clouds all day threatening rain, I think every single group put up tents. It was perfect for Day 4, and the Slottows camped next to Scott Barstowe and family (daughter Bethany and sister Carol). Dad and I had one tent, Sam and Nate had another. Scott’s family was a funny bunch. The teen twins Max and Jake decided for the first time to set up a tent for the first time on the trip, with their mom Angela’s help. River bathing with the rapids above us and the clouds and the canyon wide enough to see many layers downstream was particularly picturesque, and to top it off, we were graced with a double rainbow before dinner! We had moved into the Muav Limestone layer, and the cliff we sheltered against was made of the large rectangular sand-colored blocks.
Our chair setup was a large oval down by the water, since there wasn’t enough flat ground for more of a circle. It looked like a big banquet table but without the table! The hors d’oerves conch blew and I was delighted to find little caprese stacks of mozzarella, tomato, basil and a balsamic drizzle. I kept going back for more, and correctly predicted that tonight was spaghetti night. It exceeded my expectations with a delicious veggie sauce. For dessert, they surprised us again: vanilla ice cream that had been kept cold with dry ice, and bananas foster lit aflame in front of our eyes! It tickled me that the ice cream was cut in chunks and picked up with tongs in little rectangles.
It didn’t pour the way we all expected it to, but we were sheltered from the sand blowing into our cots and it was a cozy night.
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