27 September 2017, Wednesday

Breakfast is burritos with scrambled eggs, refried beans, hash browns, cheese and salsa. Coffee is good and plentiful. It is a bit cloudy this morning with rain threatening. We are packed and on the water by 10 am. We paddle past the confluence with the San Rafael River and stop twice along the way to hike to petroglyph sites.

One of the young geologists on the trip tells us that the black manganese stains on the cliff faces are caused by a bacteria that draws the manganese out of the rock and helps it to oxidize. The ancestral Puebloans and later Native Americans chipped away the black surface exposing the pale rock underneath, thus creating their rock writing.

From one of the petroglyph sites we see two otters playing on the river beach far below. Due to frequent stops and side trips today several other groups pass us and choose prime sandbars for their campgrounds. We are forced to paddle on about 2-3 extra miles to find a good spot for our large group. Dinner prep is underway – fajitas tonight – and we are all enjoying happy hour as we wait. A very gentle sprinkle of rain is falling as well, not enough to interfere with dinner.