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The V Wave
stay connected to the river
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October 2017 - Volume 11 Issue 1
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| Photo By Kim Gorley |
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The V Wave
(named after the legendary wave in Lava Falls rapid) keeps you connected with AzRA Grand Canyon, the river community, and the Canyon. If you have trouble viewing this email, please follow the link at the top of this message to view a web version.
This Fall edition features an article about Grand Canyon's Dark Sky Park designation, A book review, Guide Portfolio, and Green Chili Casserole recipe.
Also, don't forget the links at the bottom of the newsletter. These Grand Canyon related sites were chosen just for you!
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Grand Canyon Designated as a Dark Sky Park
On June 5, 2016, at the Annual Star Party held at the Grand Canyon, it was announced that the Grand Canyon National Park would be the 12
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park to become a Dark Sky Community. Presently, 8 of the 11 Dark Sky Parks are on the Colorado Plateau.
Currently, the Grand Canyon is a Provisional Dark Sky Park. This means the park has 3 years to comply with lighting guidelines. The guideline requires the park to have 2/3 of park lights not to be white lights. To complete this task, the Park Service will have to inventory all light fixtures on both rims and inner canyon to see what lights are white. At the time the Grand Canyon National Park submitted their application, 43% of the light fixtures met the criteria.
The International Dark Sky Agency wants to protect communities from man-made glare. The Bortle scale is a nine-level numeric scale that measures the night sky's brightness of a location. It quantifies the astronomical observability of celestial objects and the interference caused by light pollution. Class 1 would be a most natural sky and a Class 9 would be a light polluted area, usually in large cities or urban areas.
The International Dark Sky Agency is trying to "encourage communities around the world to preserve and protect dark sites through responsible lighting policies and public education."
Grand Canyon National Park hopes to receive their certification in 2019, when the park celebrates its 100th anniversary.
If you are interested in learning more about the designation or the International Dark Sky Agency check out the link below!
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Book Review on "Stalking the Wild Dragonfly"
Red River Sports is excited to be selling, "Stalking the Wild Dragonfly" by Nancy Rivest Green!
Nancy is an award winning, local author, previous orientation hostess for AzRA, and has a long history and love of Grand Canyon. This book is about different types of wildlife and her personal encounters and reflections. It's a fun read and very educational. In this 24 chapter book, she shares her personal stories, as well as stories from her dear husband. Nancy's husband was a Park Ranger in Grand Canyon for several years, and has many entertaining stories of his own.
The book highlights several animals, including: elk, bighorn sheep, scorpions, bears, ringtails, and coyotes. She provides some facts about the animals and history, in addition to Native American beliefs or stories about those animals from various tribes.
Each of the chapters have beautiful artwork done by ValJesse O'Feeney.
A few of the chapters Nancy includes stories about her travels to Australia, Peru, Alaska, Hawaii, Antartica and many other countries. In these chapters, she describes her encounters with animals like penguins, koalas, and humpback whales. She talks about the threat of extinction for some of these animals. She describes her visit to the turtle recovery program in Mexico.
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Guide Portfolio:
Jay Healy
I was born in Eastern Billings Montana. Luckily, I was encouraged to get outside early and often from camping in BSA and my dad taking me on many a fishing trip.
Then there is SKIING! I have also recently gotten into snowmobiling to avoid the crowds on the slopes, which has opened a world of wilderness to me. Did I mention that I am also a world champion barstool racer? So, if it goes on snow, I'm interested or willing to give it a go.
As a promise to myself, I try to spend my birthday someplace outside of the USA. These adventures have taken me around the world and back, but come March, I hear the call of the place that I just can't forget, The Grand Canyon.
I have been working at AzRA for four years now and guiding for another 18. Each minute is as different as it is inspiring. I also love the variety of the boats we get to work on. Each type offers a different approach. From paddling as a team, to rowing solo, to driving the big motor boats; it's all challenging and exciting. I would try to pick a favorite, but that would be something for a campfire debate.
The Grand Canyon is something that can't be explained in a few words-it must be experienced, and once that happens, look out! From a desert oasis massaging your body to a face full of beach from last night's monsoon these things are what make it so special and REAL. I do have a few favorite places and some that maybe aren't favorites but then again, it's those experiences that make it so magical.
Lava falls comes to mind as a favorite; for the gut-wrenching walk to the scout, to the split second of doubt when you push off, reacting to whatever's thrown at you, maybe a little more doubt in your choices leading up to that exact moment in the time space continuum, to the adrenaline-packed screams of success. Getting to feel all that inside, while watching it play out on the faces of the people around you, is something that is hard to duplicate. Another that falls into the favorite category would be the Little Colorado, where many a twelve-year-old has met their match, trying to set a record for laps in the creek, to the size of the smiles, dwarfed by only the surroundings. There are many more of these favorites, down in that ditch, that are waiting for you to decide.
The advice I give most often to prepare for this expedition is get yourself ready. Worry less about what to bring and more about you. It's uphill, unless we are on the water. So, you are going to go up the beach, up the trail, up that creek, and even up that cliff. If you don't get ready you might not get to see the next favorite place.
That's what I love about guiding, sharing favorite places and moments with people, and making them relive it, through their own words, on a deserted beach in the middle of nowhere.
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River Recipe - Green Chili Casserole
1 - 30 count package of corn tortillas
1 - 8 oz. bag of Jack Cheese
1 - 8 oz. Bag of Cheddar cheese
8 - Large Eggs
1 - 27 oz. Can of Green Chiles
½ - Yellow Onion
Directions:
Begin by putting oil in a pan and frying the corn tortillas slightly. You will want some of the corn tortillas to be crispy.
N
ext step is to dice the onions, then c
rack the eggs into a bowl and whisk. Put the diced onions in the egg batter.
Layer a 9 x 13 x 2 inch baking pan with the corn tortillas. Next, add a layer of Jack Cheese, Cheddar Cheese, and green chiles
. On top of this layer, add ½ of the egg batter with onions. Then add corn tortillas and another layer of cheeses and green chiles until you have used all the ingredients. Finish, by pouring the remaining egg batter with the diced onions on top.
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We would like to thank you for taking time to read our newsletter and for giving us river seasons full of wonderful memories. We hope you will choose to continue receiving this publication so we may stay connected. In fact, we appreciate input; if you have suggestions for future newsletters such as article topics, river stories, photos, poetry, or artwork to share, please email us.
See you downstream!
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(Arizona Raft Adventures, Grand Canyon Discovery and Grand Canyon Raft Adventures are concessionaires
under contract with the U.S. Government and administered by the National Park Service.)
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