CANYON TIME
The day after we went to the Black Canyon. This beautiful canyon is located on the Colorado River at the state line between Nevada and Arizona. Once a wild water river, the waters of Black Canyon form now a placid river that flows calmly from the famous Hoover Dam just a few miles upstream.
It was one of the hottest days of the year (nearly 48ºC!) and just the thought of inflating the SUP boards made us weak in the knees. So we waited in the shadows for a few hours and observed the locals’ relationship with the river.
We couldn’t help but wonder if this was the same river described in the epic tale -“The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons” by J.W. Powells, where you find superb descriptions of treacherous rapids and mighty canyons. Here what you find now is a calm and tamed river, full of motorboats, jet skis and children’s water games. Again, such a view makes you wonder about our urge to change landscape and alter its primordial configuration to tame its powers or to allow human activities.