A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of rafting down the Colorado River, through the Grand Canyon with 12 other artists. Wow what a bucket list trip. This trip was organized by artist,
Cody Delong from Jerome, AZ and our rafters and guides of everything were two skilled and friendly ladies, Den & and Hannah with "
Grand Canyon Expeditions Co" from Las Vegas, NV. This was a motorized rafting trip, and after watching U Tubes of other trips where they had to row, I'm very glad we did this type of trip. Our adventure started in Las Vegas, where we were picked up and transported by bus to Lee's Ferry, AZ. So, for the next 8 days we traveled 277 river miles and traversed about 200 rapids (grades 3-10) while sleeping under the stars at night, then painting in the mornings and evenings, it was all just a magical experience. I took so many photos, it has been difficult selecting a few for this blog. I did not paint every evening but all the mornings, so my reference photos will be my inspiration for the weeks to come. Hopefully in the near future I'll post a few of my studio paintings. We ended the trip at Pearce Ferry, and returned to Las Vegas for an evening meal with 12 new friends who had shared this wonderful adventure with me.
Here we are, ready to load up and launch.
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My first painting, "Reflections" 6x12 plein air pastel.
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| 9x12 Plein Air Pastel |
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| 9x12 Plein air pastel |
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| 9x12 plein air pastel |
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| 9x12 plein air pastel |
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| 6x12 Plein Air Pastel, I wanted to capture one of the rapids in my painting. |
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| A short hike to the Little Colorado River, note the color, a teal green!! |
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| Swimming or surfing down the rapids on the Little Colorado River. |
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| Approaching one of the rapids, they were quite deceptive, but Den would yell out... put away your cameras and hold on, we knew it would be a short wild ride... I could not photograph a big rapid, but some of the rapids would drop up to 30 feet... |
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| Or two river guides, Den and Hannah in the back of the boat. They got us safely through all the rapids, cooked all of our meals and shared information of what we were seeing. They were the best!! |
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Yes that's me sitting in the front of the raft, trying not to swallow to much of the river.
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| One of our campsites, with Den and Hannah fixing our meal, and we are painting.... |
A delicious evening meal and vista.... the best relaxation ever after a busy day!!
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| A view of the raft from the front... |
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| Morning and afternoon we had to load and unload the raft. |
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| One of my rooms under the stars. |
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| Some of the paintings done while on the river. |
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| The bathroom is open |
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| Our wonderful adventure is almost over... |
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| Good by to our guides Den and Hannah!! |
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A truly magical experience. I really loved this trip, and I made great new friends. Looking forward to the paintings I will create and it would be great to see some from those of you who shared this adventure.... Such memories I will not forget!!!
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