Willis Greiner Photography -- Landscape Photography

"Rhythm of the River"

The rapids here are large and thunderous. A typical situation might be a quiet scenic float for some time and then perhaps, with a simple turn in the river, the thunder of a distant falls or cataract. After negotiation, these "obstacles" again give way to more serene passages. Frightening, exciting, calm, almost repetitive; the overwhelming theme is really the rhythm of the river.

It was important not to see the Canyon from the rim before seeing it from the river. We have just passed the final view of the rim from deep inside the bowels of the Canyon. We are now dropping into Powell's Great Unknown. The Canyon's timelessness has now taken control.

Rhythm. Rhythm of the river. Day and night, hot and cold, rapids and eddies; this timeless waterway flowing downward as it has seemingly forever. The Grand Canyon itself is said to be very young, but we are floating into very old rock. The Unconformity. The Great Unconformity. The Greatest Unconformity. The stacking of the canyons. The eons of sediment deposition. The approach and retreat of ancient oceans. The advent of floods and droughts, and the resultant additional sedimentation. The pyroclastic violence of volcanoes and lava flows. The metamorphosis of granite and schist. The beginnings of life. All of it, all the history, all timelessly flowing rhythmically through this land; just as the river moves through the Canyon here today.

It was important not to see the Canyon from the rim before seeing it from the river. We have just passed the final view of the rim from deep inside the bowels of the Canyon. We are now dropping into Powell's Great Unknown. The Canyon's timelessness has now taken control.

Am I apprehensive about the next set of rapids; concerned as to the success of our journey? Of course. Is there control as to the outcome? Yes, but in the final analysis it is the rhythm here that is the prevailing force. If the river is alive -- if it is, in fact, a distinct organism -- it displays its soul in the eddies and its emotion in this omnipresent rhythm. Constant, consistent, ageless.

We are participants in this experience with the river. We become at times more attached to its rhythm; and as a result more emotionally attached to the river. Whether rowing downstream in flat water or while entering the gigantic slick-water tongues of these "Grand" rapids; we are in great measure emotionally involved with the river. And when we have left, of course, the river remains. Although changing slightly on a daily basis, its emotions are truly constant and timeless. As it was once, it will remain. Dams will be built, visitors will descend in a plethora of absurd craft, but when it is all said and done -- when all the people are gone, when all the synthetic mechanisms have long ago rusted to dust -- the river will remain. Solid, stoic, powerful, soulful, rhythmic, emotional, alive.