Fresh snow dusts Denny Peak as we climb over Snoqualmie Pass.

John is settled in for the long drive to Arizona.

Passing along the outskirts of Bryce Canyon National Park in southern Utah.

View of the Vermillion Cliffs of Southern Utah.

Approaching Page, Arizona.

Getting ready to drive across the Colorado River and over the Glen Canyon Dam into Page.

Arrival at Lees Ferry!

John checks out the boat launch at Lees Ferry.

Now that our boats are rigged we can watch others rig their boats.

Looking upstream towards our route.

The view downstream and the entrance to the Grand Canyon.

John and Kathleen enjoy the shade of the new picnic shelter at Lees Ferry.

Dad takes a break from rigging the boats.

We're on our shuttle up-river.

Leaving Lees Ferry behind as we head up-river.

John and Doug enjoy the ride.

Kelly (our boatman) speeds John upriver.

Kathleen and John enjoy the scenery.

The canyon narrows and deepens as we head up-river.

The walls close in above us as we head further up-canyon.

Navajo Sandstone overlays Moenkopi Sandstone.

Can you see the arch?

Kelly tries to point out people on the rim looking down on us.

John Wesley Powell named this formation "The Monk".

1500' high walls of Navajo Sandstone.

The only riffle on this stretch of river. Of course John and I "ran it" the next day!

Freshwater spring pours into the Colorado River.

Passing by the Ropes Trail Camp, where we'll be camping for the night.

Glen Canyon Dam emerges around the bend.

Ideally this dam will fall down and/or silt up in the not so disstant future.

Another pair of kayakers is brought upstream by raft.

Our camp in the canyon.

Wall on the opposite side of the river from camp.

The shadows creep up the wall as day fades into dusk.

Turkey Vultures and an aluminum bird.

Boats beached at camp.

John throws pebbles into the Colorado.

The walls change colors as sunset approaches.

John heads back up to camp.

Globe Mallow

Pictographs above camp. Some are many hundreds of years old, and others are more recent additions.

John and Doug check out the pictographs.

Anasazi pictographs.

Doug helps John down the sandstone.

John and Kathleen at the Ropes Trail camp.

We're on the water!

John Wesley floats down the Colorado River.

Kathleen heads over to reexamine the freshwater spring.

Our boatman the previous day says the source of this water is likely in Utah, hundreds of miles away.

Doug and John take in the scenery.

Taking a break on a sandy beach.

Prickly Pear cactus in bloom - with bonus honeybee inside!

Doug and John explore a bench above the river.

Back on the water and heading downstream.

Time for another beach break!

Kathleen enjoys the scenery and tranquility of the canyon.

Doug checks out the map in a fruitless search for more camps.

The final aisle before returning to Lees Ferry.

Morning light on the Vermillion Cliffs.

Investigating dories at Lees Ferry.

These dories are virtually identical to the boats Kathleen aned Doug have twice taken down the full 277 miles of the Grand Canyon.

Once the boats have been rigged for the canyon trip, they are brought to this beach to await their passengers.

Balancing Rock along the road to Lees Ferry.

Loaded up and leaving Lees Ferry.

Walking out on the old Navajo Bridge, over the Grand Canyon. The next bridge over the Colorado River is some 300 miles downstream at Hoover Dam.

Looking upstream towards Lees Ferry.

Looking downstream into the first miles of the Grand Canyon.

John peers down at the river through a drainage hole.

California Condors love to soar around the two bridges.

The old (left) and new (right) Navajo Bridges over the Marble Canyon section of the Grand Canyon.

Walking out towards the overlook over Horseshoe Bend.

In the distance is Lake Powell to the left and Page, Arizona to the right.

John and Kathleen enjoy the easy hike to the overlook.

Horseshoe Bend. We kayaked through this section the prior day, and should have camped along the banks here. for our second night on the river.

John Welsey checks out John Wesley Powell's boat.

Mom helps him see inside.

Doug and Kathleen did their 2004 Grand Canyon trip with Martin Litton, seen here in the John Wesley Powell Museum in Page, AZ.

An old riverboat. This particular boat had been rowed by Barry Goldwater when he was a boatman on the San Juan and Colorado Rivers.

El Capitan, just outside Kayenta, Arizona. El Capitan is sacred to the Navajos.

Conveniently placed horse along the way to Monument Valley.

Monument Valley - West and East Mitten.

The boys take pictures in Monument Valley.

The cutest tourist in Monument Valley.

The Elephants

Second conveniently placed horse in Monument Valley.

"The Chair".

"Totem Poles".

Looking back towards Monument Valley as we head north towards Mexican Hat, Utah.

The San Juan River, in front of our motel in Mexican Hat, Utah.

The San Juan River in Mexican Hat.

Bird tracks in the mud along the river.

Our riverfront motel, the San Juan Inn.

The actual Mexican Hat rock formation just outside of Mexican Hat.

Volcanic pinnacle on the horizon south of Mexican Hat.

The Goosenecks of the San Juan River, viewed appropriately enough from Goosenecks State Park, just outside of Mexican Hat.

Heading up the Moki Dugway towards the Cedar Mesa and Muley Point.

Looking over the Goosenecks of the San Juan River from Muley Point.

Kathleen and John head towards the views.

Kathleen noticed the pictographs on a slab below the overlook.

The Moki Dugway, carved out of the side of the Cedar Mesa by uranium miners in the 1950's.

Entering the Valley of the Gods.

Rock formation on the way to Moab, Utah identified as a "submarine" by John.

Arch along the side of the road on the way to Moab.

Kathleen and John play in the swimming pool at the hotel in Moab.

The entrance to Arches National Park.

John Wesley checks out John Wesley Wolfe's ranch inside Arches National Park.

Wolfe's Ranch, alongside the trail to Delicate Arch.

Doug and John head up the trail towards Delicate Arch.

Looking south towards the Windows.

John and Kathleen hiking up towards the arch.

Primrose alongside the trail.

John photographs the Primrose.

Walking up and over the slickrock.

Delicate Arch "framed" by Frame Arch.

Delicate Arch, the icon of Arches National Park and symbol on Utah license plates.

Delicate Arch is to Utah as Mt. Rainier is to Washington State.

The park ranger came along at just the right time and offered to take a family portrait in front of the arch.

Flowers along the trail back from Delicate Arch.

Pictographs near Wolfe Ranch.

The "new" cabin at Wolfe's Ranch.

The "old" cabin at Wolfe's Ranch.

Firey Furnace in Arches National Park.

Double Arch and other formations.

Double Arch.

Balanced Rock.

"The Gossips".

John in front of the Visitor's Center.

John plays with Raul and Esperanza.

John rides a Big Orange Jeep.

Entering Canyonlands National Park.

Lunch at Grand View Point in Canyonlands National Park.

Somewhere down in there is the Colorado River.

Hiking up to the Upheaval Dome overlook.

Upheaval Dome - likely the site of a metorite impact 60 million years ago. Most of the debris and damage has eroded away, leaving this formation.

John and Kathleen check out Upheaval Dome.

The Shaffer Trail (road) down in to Canyonlands National Park.

Sculpture inside the John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River, Utah.

Replica of the first boat lost by the 1869 Powell Expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers.

Replica of Powell's boat, the Emma Dean. In calm water, Powell would read poetry to the men from his perch in his chair atop the Emma Dean.

John Wesley and his namesake.

John plays trains with Doug's Uncle Kirk in Salt Lake City.