Mile 126.5 - Randy’s Rock

In 1976, a young commercial boatman named Randy took a nap while one of his passengers rowed his 22’ foot long snout boat in the relatively calm stretch above the Middle Granite Gorge. He awoke to the boat colliding with a giant slab of mostly submerged Tapeats sandstone, resting immovable in deep water on the left side of the river channel. The snout quickly began to “wrap” around the rock as passengers and gear were dumped into the river. As the snout continued to wrap, all the gear lashed to it were pushed underneath the undercut slab, leaving only a portion of the entire boat peeking above the waterline.

Retrieval »

Efforts made by Randy and the other guides and crew of the trip were successful in retrieving some of the trapped gear, but more importantly they could not free the boat itself and were forced to head downstream for camp without it. Sometime during the night, probably because of water fluctuations, the snout boat came free. Randy’s group retrieved the craft, and proceeded to salvage anything they could. The twin inflatable tubes were salvageable, but the frame itself was so bent and contorted that it had become burdensome. It was also heavy enough that the group could not get it to shore and out of the water, so the decision was made to set it free, and it sank to the bottom of the river. The tubes were deflated, rolled up, and stashed for future retrieval by a less compromised trip.

The Rest of the Trip »

The expedition continued on with one less snout boat. Other trips helped them out by offering extra food so that they could make it through the rest of the canyon. The trip finished on schedule, without another incident of note.

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