jet boat ride

A jet boat ride on the Colorado River, how cool is that!  We boarded the small, flat boat at 1 p.m. for our 4 hour tour.  There were only 13 of us, so there was plenty of room on the boat (13 on the 13th....lucky?)

The section of the river we rode on was quite wide and calm, albeit fairly shallow.  Our pilot (Rory)  had to traverse the river to avoid sandbars and shallow areas.  The ride was smooth and fast (about 30 mph) past towering cliffs and monoliths.  We stopped often to talk and to just float silently in the swift current.  We didn't see another soul on the entire trip (68 miles).  We did pass an empty canoe beached near a natural amphitheater, but no one was in sight.

our boat, stopped for a short hike 

view in front of me

spray over the side

jug handle arch

bend in the river with a visible sandbar

a natural amphitheater and a beached canoe

close-up of a petrified log

petrified log stuck into the rock face

 this is he cliff that Thelma and Louise drove off in that great chick flick.

Lots of movies are filmed here.  Our guide rattled off way to many titles for me to remember, but suffice it to say, lots of movies.  The one that is currently being shot here is The Lone Ranger, with Johnny Depp as Tonto.   The movie industry's checkbook supplements many people's income in Moab.

petroglyph of a bear. if you look really close, you'll see an image of an archer pointing his arrow at the bear's head and also some small big horn sheep.

I've heard about some areas that we can go to see more petroglyphs.  If we have time tomorrow we'll try to see them.

We were on overload tonight, dazzled by our time on the river.  We drove back to Beluga and the dogs slowly, thinking about our experience.  Delivery pizza and red wine tasted real good and now we're tucked in for the night.   Its raining lightly outside, first in quite awhile.

This is the courtyard we walked through to get to our boat, and our last view at the end of the day.