- Joined
- Oct 2, 1999
I don't recall who took this picture, but that's me and my wife sitting in the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. I think that was 10+ days after a the last rainstorm on the trip, but the water was still chocolaty brown. The quote was "It's too thick to drink and too thin to plow." In truth, it is what we drank. The crew could fill buckets from the river, let the water settle for several hours, and then filter the clear water on the top part of the bucket.
We were prepared for the water to be extremely cold (50°F or 10°C), but it was much warmer. Normally, it is very cold because it comes from the bottom of the lake behind the Glen Canyon Dam. The lake level has gotten so low, that the water is returning to more normal temps. That's great for the endangered fish in the area and for boaters wanting to relax in the river, but the low water is a huge problem for people living and farming out west.
I have read that about the Colorado River water conditions; supposed to be quite rough on the skin too! Hard to believe that you drank that water too but we did the same on the Arkansas River which wasn't anywhere near as muddy.
