8:30 A.M. WHITE WATER RAFTING GRAND CANYON TOUR
After a quick breakfast in our room, we piled into the Rebel Adventure Tours van that took us to a natural wonderland. The first sight, about an hour into our 12-hour tour, took us past the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, the largest man-made lake in the United States. The blue, shimmering water of the lake is in stark contrast to the brown, barren Mojave Desert surrounding it. Rebel Adventure Tours. $479 per person. Call 800-817-6789 or click here. Lake Mead National Recreation Area's Visitor's Center. Free. Call 702-293-8990.
9:30 A.M. HOOVER DAM
The Colorado River looks tiny lying at the base of the dam. In its own way, this construction is as awe-inspiring as the Strip. Built during the Great Depression with public monies, it provided much-needed work for thousands of men. The difficulties of construction set an engineering standard for the next 50 years. We stopped at the gift shop for souvenirs, coffee and a bird's-eye view of this construction marvel. Call 702-293-8321. The Visitor Center is open from 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M..
10:30 A.M. OLD ROUTE 66 VISITOR CENTER AND GENERAL STORE
We climbed back into the van to head across Arizona to a wilder section of the river that lies north of Hoover Dam just south of the Grand Canyon. Rich, our tour guide, stopped at a kitschy little store with a red corvette resting beside an antique gas pump. Inside, Elvis, Marilyn and alien memorabilia crammed the shelves. Chloe found a laminated Marilyn Monroe driver's license. A devoted fan, she couldn't resist the purchase and a quick pose in the
convertible holding up the license as if it were her own. Hackberry, Arizona. Free. Call
928-769-2605 or send an E-mail to rt66sw@route66web.com.
NOON HAULAPAI RESERVATION, RAFTING AND TRAVERTINE FALLS
The Haulapai Reservation borders the Grand Canyon National Park and contains the only western entrance to the Colorado River. We wound down a dirt road until we reached a small beach where the Haulapai river-runners handed us life jackets and helped us into a motorized raft. Although we were in the Grand Canyon, the cliffs were not as high as seen from the South Rim. Once we began bouncing through the class 3 to class 6 rapids, the cliffs and history were all but forgotten.
Exhilarated by the rapids, we were ready for a snack and a short hike. At Travertine Falls,
we stopped at a small beach bordered by a stream. The kids threw off their life jackets and
explored the mouth of the tumbling tributary, although we could neither see nor hear the
falls. The hike up the stream bed was short but adventurous--a couple of boulders were
more than 10 feet high. We could have worked our way around them, but instead, one at a time, we inelegantly clambered up using a tethered rope. We reached a small plateau perched high above the valley where a seven-foot waterfall splashed out of the mouth of a cave. Digging our fingers and toes into small cracks and fissures, we scrambled up the adjacent wall, slippery with mist. Steep, narrow cliffs soared above us, lit from cracks in the ceiling. The water-rich air and a deep rumbling drew us around another corner where we found the sun streaming down on the top of a 30-foot cliff with water pouring over the edge from another, more hidden, source deep within the earth. We bathed in the pounding water, warm after the 40 F degree river, laughing and soaked to the skin. The Strip seemed a million miles away.
6 P.M. ROSE'S DEN AT THE BOULDER INN
About half-way home, tired and rosy from the sun, we were certainly ready for a real meal by the time Rich pulled into Rose's Den. They served a wide variety of soups and sandwiches which tasted heavenly, especially after a day on the water. The rest of the drive home was taken up with sleepy banter about the day's adventure which left us with just enough energy to tumble into bed. Milepost 28 South of Hoover Dam, Kingman, Arizona. Call 928-767-3348.
Please keep in mind that phone numbers, addresses, and prices are subject to change. Updated August 2005.
construction is as awe-inspiring as the Strip. Built during the Great Depression with public monies, it provided much-needed work for thousands of men. The difficulties of construction set an engineering standard for the next 50 years. We stopped at the gift shop for souvenirs, coffee and a bird's-eye view of this construction marvel. Call 702-293-8321. The Visitor Center is open from 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M..
