Docking the Canyon, Pt 3, Flushed
Toroweap Rainbow by Kantiki
Story - Docking the Canyon, Pt 3, Flushed: It's the Grand Canyon. I can't just start off with how we flash-cooked a pot of beans and rice along with our eyebrows... and it wouldn't be as fun to kick it off with the side of the mountain that we climbed in our sedan to get to this place. So we'll kick it off with the storm that flushed us out of the Canyon.
In all honesty, my brother Skybreak and I were blissfully ignorant to the full scope of the ruin that had been brought to the canyon in our wake. To us, the sprinkling rain and showers had been a refreshing change from the heat of the day, lasting long enough to cool us as we hiked, then picking up the pace when we began to drive back outta the canyon. It wasn't until we got back to civilization that we were met with one message after another asking if we were alive.
Tiki: "Should we tell 'em we're dead?"
Skybreak: "I'll tell them you died and I carried on without you."
Tiki: "A'ite... as long as I get to be the dead one."
(note: this is why we're not allowed to do things)
You see, there's no storm shelter at the Toroweap camping grounds. In fact, the storm almost certainly washed away the road we'd come in on. These grounds are called "primitive" for a reason. The low rock bed where we'd pitched our tents would've quickly filled with rain water, becoming a small lake with floating marshmallow tents, before finally overflowing and flushing our site off the side 'o the canyon. I'm a big fan of the canyon. I'm an even bigger fan of not getting myself "flushed". If you've seen how far the drop is over the side, then I think you'd be on the "not getting flushed" side 'o things as well.
That said, the rain was awesome! When we landed ourselves in Toroweap, it was in the heat of August on the high plains of the red rock desert that surrounds the Grand Canyon. You could say it was a little hot. I'm a heat junkie... and even I would call it "hot". That didn't stop us from going out hiking when we should be resting in siesta, but the first sprinkles from the sky felt like someone had turned on a valve and had released pure energy drinks into our system.
As fortune had it, we were running out of water. The water falling from the sky wasn't going to be enough to keep us from dehydrating in the desert... so we packed up and headed for the nearest town. The rain followed us, dying out for a time, then coming back with the full force of a desert storm. Color me impressed, as I'd never seen Utah rage away a storm this fierce before. While we'd made good ground against it, you couldn't miss the dark shadow that painted the breadth of the horizon behind us. I captured this vivid shot of the storm and rainbow as it was brewing, with little-to-no idea that this rainbow was out to kill us.
Cheers Toroweap! Enjoy the swim... 'n see ya again soon!
Related Posts:
• Docking the Canyon, Pt 1, They call this a road
• Docking the Canyon, Pt 2, It tastes like burning
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