Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

From June 28th through July 3rd, I had the privilege of being on a raft on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This was part of a family trip “for the guys.” On a trip put together by my father-in-law Allan, his two sons, me (a son in law), my three sons, two other grandsons, one grandson-in-law, and one great grandson spent five days and five nights on the Colorado River. These blog posts are part of the story.

We saw a lot of wildlife from the raft. I think that our guide Andy was surprised at how much wildlife we saw. We saw maybe a dozen mountain goats or rams or I’m not sure what they are called, but we saw them. I have the impression that on most river trips Andy spots the wildlife and not the people in the raft. There were two exceptions on this trip.

(1) My nephew-in-law was on the raft. He grew up hunting deer in Mississippi and has a keen eye for wildlife.

(2) I was on the raft. I didn’t grow up hunting deer, but used some basic logic about where wildlife would be standing.

It really is pretty simple. We were on a river, there is water in the river, and the animals have to drink water every day.

• There was no use looking on the shore where a sheer rock plunged into the water as the animals couldn’t walk down the side of sheer rock.
• There was no use looking on the sunny side of the river. Animals go to the water in the shade. They are smart enough to avoid the hot sun. Only mad dogs and Englishmen and people on a raft in the Colorado River go out in the hot sun.
• Hence, I concentrated on the shady side of the river, the beaches, and the shade. The wildlife was there most of the time. The rest of the time the wildlife was approaching the beaches on the shady side of the river.

I was surprised at how much wildlife there was in the canyon. It is a desert with sparse greenery for food. Still, there is a large river running through the middle of the canyon, and wildlife gathers about water.

Oh, and then there was the deer that we could have patted on the head. We were at the part of the canyon where hikers come down from one rim, walk across a foot bridge, and head up to the other rim (after a night of camping). A deer was sitting in the shade under a tree. We stood on the walkway three feet away. There was something interesting but not satisfying about that. It was as if we were supposed to be feeding this deer or something.

Photos? No, I didn’t take any photos of the wildlife. I didn’t have a suitable camera. Search the net for “grand canyon wildlife.” There are plenty of photos of what we saw.