This is a photo of a prickly pear flower (genus Opuntia) near our first campsite on the river at approximately mile 86. Many of the prickly pears that we saw had red flowers.
This is a view in the canyon that we hiked in the same day. It had lots of water and tadpoles swimming around. We also saw an acrobatic raven that was bouncing itself off the canyon walls.
During our second day on the river we passed through an area known as Bowknot Bend. The river takes about seven miles to reverse its direction. At the beginning of the Bowknot at about mile 70, we hiked up to the ridge which allowed us to see the river on both sides. This is the view downstream from that ridgeline.
This is now the view upsteam from the same location.
This is Kate and I at the same spot.
We camped that night at the end of the Bowknot at about mile 63. We had covered about 23 river miles that day. The cactus in the photo is in the genus Echinocereus and the other plant is a mallow (genus Sphaeralcea). This campsite was by far the most unappealing on the trip. I couldn't even begin to count how many mosquito bites I received.
Here's the same species of mallow growing on the otherwise barren rock.
During our next day on the river, we covered about 19 miles. Along the way we entered Canyonlands National Park at about mile marker 46.5. We spent two consecutive nights camped at the entrance of Upheaval Canyon. We had heard that the next day on the river would be very windy, so it was advisable to stay off the river. This photo was taken near our campsite.
During our "day off" we hiked up Upheaval Canyon. This trail leads to the center of Upheaval Dome which is an interesting geologic feature inside Canyonlands National Park.
Most of our large group accompanied us on our hike in Upheaval Canyon. This photo was taken in a nice little side amphitheater.
The area in which we camped had a very nice sandbar. This was one of the plants growing in the sand. If you know what it is, please let me know. As an aside, while it was a nice sandbar, it wasn't so nice when there were 50 mi/hr winds.
The strong winds lead to plants drawing lines in the sand as you can see here.
This is an evening primrose (genus Oenothera). There were many of these growing in the sand.
This is the only picture I took on this trip while I was in the kayak. If I recall correctly this is at about mile 40.
We saw a number of nice petroglyphs on this trip. I won't tell you where we took this one but it has an incredibly nice shield held by one of the figures.
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July 22, 2011 - ( milsom@physics.arizona.edu)