Good Sabbath . . .

Early Sabbath morning we were off looking about for an adventure of some sort.  The sky was not absolutely blue...there was some grey hanging around that we wanted to see disappear but that did not stop us from picking up our cameras and casting about for some 'snaps'.

We started at the bridge where we had ended Friday, crossed the bridge on foot and looked up the Colorado River...

Isn't that just so beautiful?

We picked up more information at the Visitor's Centre and headed north.

Our route for the morning took us through Marble Canyon.  Some of the famous shots you see in coffee table books on Arizona are on this road.

Red rock is everywhere...

If you look closely at the photo below you will see layers of different kinds of rock, all stacked on top of each other.  The very top layer is made up of these huge boulders that tend to pop off and roll down the cliff, coming to rest on the gravelly sand below.

This photo is for real...Sherwin who is 6'2" looks like a miniature beside that massive rock.

We have had a lot of fun taking each other's picture on this trip.  Notice the dusty knees here from crawling about trying to get the right 'snap'.

This balancing rock is a good example of a boulder composed of hard rock sitting on a type of dirt that is not the same composition. The softer dirt/sand has blown out or been washed away with rain.  There are a number of these balancing rocks in this canyon.  Again this is real!  We were amazed at the size of these balancing rocks.

As we continued up the canyon we found a small road where we could drive down to the Colorado.

Look very closely and you will see at the left top of the river some tiny little lines of yellow...see them?

Within a short time those yellow lines showed up as yellow rafts wending their way down the river.  Immediately I thought of Seth, our grandson, who had the opportunity to float/ride down the Colorado a couple summers ago.

When we saw these rafts Sherwin asked me if I would do that with him sometime.  After serious consultation with my grandson I will give him his answer.  We did meet a couple our age the evening before at dinner who were there to do the rafting trip.

And it does look like a thrill!

We learned that all rafting trips start at Lee's Ferry, named that for a man by the name of Lee who used to run a ferry back and forth across the river before the bridges were installed.

These were the houses originally used by early settlers in the early 1900's.

The colour of the stone house blends right into the red walls of rock behind...

Lee's Ferry is as far as the car could go and since we were realizing that we were running out of play time we decided to leave the hike for another time and head on back down Marble Canyon and on our way.  What a wonderful start to our Sabbath...