We ran the lower part of the Grand Canyon from Diamond Creek (where most Grand Canyon trips take out) to Lake Mead, taking out at South Cove. It was an excellent trip, we had great weather, the rapids were a blast, the camps were really nice, and we saw no other campers once we left Diamond Creek. None of us had done this section before, and none of us had done a private trip on such big water with such challenging rapids. We had eight adults, an 18' cat, two 14' cats, a 14' paddle raft, a 16' SOAR canyon (set up with oars) and a Bandit single inflatable kayak, which was more than enough boats. We used two full size pickup trucks for shuttle, each with a trailer. On the first day (October 3), we left Phoenix at 5:15 am, met and picked up people along the way, moved gear into the shuttle vehicles, and launched at about 2:00 pm. We ran a few rapids and did a short hike at Travertine Canyon, which was fantastic, and camped at Travertine falls.

On the second day we ran the biggest natural rapids, scouting only 232 (Killer Fang Falls), with no swims, although I almost went over in the IK in 232 (rated 6 on the Grand Canyon scale from 1-10). I wore a hydroskin top and a splash jacket in the Bandit on the second day and was plenty warm enough even in a light rain, but we were not hot at all. On other days, and after the rapids, I just wore a shirt and pants, and was fine, even when wet. There were 6 or 8 really nice rapids in the first two days. This was more than twice the flow we have paddled on before and the waves were huge. On the second day, after the rapids, we floated and paddled some, camping at Spencer Canyon. One person got a 2-inch cut on his leg from his cat frame. We had a suture kit and a couple of people in the group in the medical field, including the injured paddler, put in a couple of stitches, but the needle that we had was too small and it broke after two stitches. Those two stitches held for a while, but then pulled apart. They taped plastic over the wound to try to keep it dry and it did not seem to get infected during the trip.

On the third day, we rolled up the IK and paddled and rowed the other boats for about an hour and then tied the boats together into a flotilla and used a 3.5 hp motor that we brought. We had some problems with the motor initially and worked on it for about an hour while we floated until we discovered that the shut-off switch had an intermittent short. We cut the wires to the switch and the motor worked great after that. We did not know how fast we would go through gas, so we ran the motor fairly slow and went about 4.5 to 5 mph. We had about 6 gallons of gas with us and used about half of it on the whole trip. We passed some places on the third say where tourists were apparently helicoptered in and out to view the canyon. In addition, two Hualapai motor boats passed us on day 3 with just the captain's. They had launched at Diamond Creek that morning and their passenger's had apparently flown out by helicopter. They stopped and made sure we were ok and asked if we needed any ice. Then we met two rangers in a motor boat coming upstream just above recently-formed Pierce Ferry Rapid who told us that there was no way to scout it and to run it just left of the rock in the middle. They did not give us a hard time about using a motor and not having any of the boats registered. At that point we disassembled the flotilla and ran Pierce Ferry as individual boats, but did not use the IK.

The 14' paddle raft (with 4 people) and one of the 14' cats ran Pierce Ferry rapid successfully following the advice of the rangers without scouting and eddied out below. It was very big and ugly, and the hole on the left is huge and appeared to have gotten bigger and perhaps moved upstream from what I had seen in YouTube videos made in the early summer. As we approached in the paddle raft, we saw that the jagged rock in the middle extended further to the left than we thought, so we had to ferry hard to the left to get around it. That gave us some momentum to the left, which was probably not desirable. Even so, we were able to line up the big hay stack and the river turned us to the right into the large eddy. We held the eddy for a short time and then eddied out on the right bank. The captains of the other 14' cat, SOAR, and 18' cat saw that it was possible to eddy out upstream of the rapid on river left, and went and scouted the rapid. The bank where people used to scout has been washed away, to some extent, but it is possible to go higher through the tammies to scout, from the top of a 20' silt cliff, which I would recommend. But be careful, because the cliff bank does not appear to be stable. After scouting, and seeing the nastiness on the left, the 18' cat ran right of the big rock. But the captain was ejected in the hole below. Fortunately, the cat did not flip. We launched the raft, recovered captain and craft, and eddied out farther downstream on the left bank, loosing only a hat and a canteen. Next the SOAR went. He also aimed to go right of the rock, but hit the rock and lost control, breaking an oar blade on the rock. It is difficult to know exactly where to be in the current to make the turn down the right side. He went down the right side eventually and was also ejected from his boat, and was carried into the big eddy behind the rock where he was sucked under for a few seconds. I threw a throw bag from the left bank, but was far short. But after one circle around the eddy he washed downstream and was assisted by the other boaters. The last boat (Gene in his 14' cat), after watching the carnage on the right, ran left and had the best run of any of us, not even getting splashed. In conclusion, there is a good line thought Pierce Ferry rapid, but it is not at all obvious and there appear to be a lot of ways to get into trouble. It seemed like the hardest rapid that we did, by far, and I would rate it at least as a 7. In addition, Pierce Ferry rapid appears to be changing frequently. I would recommend breaking up the flotilla far before Pierce Ferry rapid and scouting it carefully.

We camped on the third night on a huge flat sandy beach downstream of Pierce Ferry rapid on river left. It got colder that night and wet cloths that were hung out no longer dried over night. But we took our jackets off as soon the sun came up the next morning. On the fourth day we floated and paddled for a while, trying out each other's boats, and then put the flotilla back together and motored out. We ran Iceberg rapid (small at this lake level) as a flotilla, which went fine, but the more conservative thing to do would have been to have ran it as individual boats. Iceberg rapid is just as you enter the lake, and it would be harder at lower lake level. The lake water was clear and warm and we motored across to South Cove, which was easy to find. We derigged on the side of the boat ramp, using about half of the width of the ramp, which had very little traffic on a Monday and was an excellent place to take out. Then we picked up a vehicle in Ash Fork, dropped off a passenger in Chino, and were home to Phoenix before 9:00 pm.

We did this trip during a scheduled "constant flow" experiment, when the river was held at 13,000 cfs for two months, which worked out great for us. The water was very clear when we started, but got brown as it picked up silt below the high water level of lake Mead. Unstable cliffs of silt up to 30' high continuously collapsed into the river, even at constant water flow, and sounded like far-off artillery on the third night. Four days was adequate the way we did it, but we could have used more time for hiking. Without a motor, it might have been possible to float the flat sections at night as a flotilla and sleep on the boats, but one would have to be very careful not to float over Pierce Ferry rapid in the dark. Even in the daytime, we should have broken up the flotilla farther upstream of Pierce Ferry to make sure we didn't go over it tied together.

We found it easy to get permits for this section. We called a few months in advance and our first choice weekend was available. But we had to pay about $800 to the tribe for permit fees. We had one cancellation at the last minute and stopped in at the Hualapai Lodge in Peach Springs on the first day to get a refund. They took down our information and said they would call us about it, and would probably give us a refund. But they didn't give the money to us right then and they have not called. It might be better to wait and pay on the way to the river, I don't know. We had the vehicles shuttled, which cost $140 per vehicle. I don't see how they can make money on it at that rate. But the axle broke and one of the wheels broke off of one of the trailers during the shuttle. When we arrived at South Cove one trailer was sitting on the other one. I don't know that the same thing wouldn't have happened if we had done our own shuttle, but it was odd that the trailer did ok when it was loaded, but then broke when it was empty. Even so, I would probably use the shuttle service again next time. We didn't have to use 4wd at Diamond Creek, but on a different day you might need to. We had to drive in the water some, and on cobbles and sand. Before going on this trip, I joined the yahoo group "Rafting Grand Canyon". I got a lot of very usful information from this list serve. Special thanks go to those who answered my questions about this section of canyon.