Diamond Peak

Around mile 216 (346km), I entered the Lower Granite Gorge where the canyon closed in, narrowing the width of the Colorado. The rapids were easy and uncomplicated, passing the occasional small rock piles in the middle of the river and a handful of islands.

The canyon seemed to have softened with more vegetation present and less imposing layers of rock, except for the pointy Diamond Peak that I could see for miles before I reached it. Adjacent to the peak was Diamond Creek Beach. A wide sandy beach, it had several permanent concrete tables with benches and each with a metal cover above it to shield them from the sun. From here I had a perfect view of the craggy peak.

As the first place accessible to vehicles since Lees Ferry (mile 0), Diamond Creek is a popular spot for day trippers and also for river runners to end their trip or start the shorter route downstream.

Diamond Creek Canyon is prone to flash flooding during monsoon season and it often washes parts of the road away. In the summer of 1984, a couple of river outfitters were heading up the canyon in their trucks. When one of the vehicles got stuck in loose gravel everyone hopped out to help free it. Then, the rumbling came. At first thinking it might be a plane or thunder, imagine their surprise when 100 yards (90m) away a 10ft (3m) wall of water filling the canyon raced towards them. With only seconds to spare, everyone raced up the cliffs, just barely managing to escape. Fortunately, no one was hurt but a couple of guides spent several hours stuck on a narrow ledge waiting for the water to recede and be rescued.

The water was so forceful that the trucks were pushed into one another, rolled into the river and submerged whilst the gear floated away. A lot of the equipment was recovered a few days later 20mi (32km) downstream in Lake Mead. One of the rafts was found 29 years later in the lake. When the water is low, one of the trucks becomes visible in the river not far from Diamond Creek.

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