Dan Cassidy
commercial passenger, dealer of rare Grand Canyon books

   When I look back on my first River trip, I realize how things clicked to make it a memorable experience.

   First, a Greyhound bus ride to Flagstaff, a bus change and a long ride to Bitter Springs. I was dropped off at an abandoned gas station in the middle of nowhere with my black rubber bags and ammo cans. An hour wait at this lonely spot gave me time to reflect on the vastness of the surrounding country.

   Then the ride to Cliff Dwellers, a gas station and motel which looked like a 1940 Ansel Adams photo. Three wooden boats and two old trucks added to the atmosphere. Martin Litton landed his 40-year-old airplane on a dirt landing strip. And the waitress at the restaurant wouldn’t let me pay for dinner until after I ate breakfast the next morning. These experiences portrayed a quieter and more trusting time, and set the mood for my trip ahead.

   It was an early spring trip, 22 days, and not many people on the River yet. The pace was slow, the beaches and hiking trails clean; we almost felt like the first party, as we explored the magnificence of the Canyon. The small wooden boats made the white water an exciting adventure. The flat quiet water was ideal for talking geology, history and wildlife, and allowed us the opportunity to listen to the River and the Canyon dwellers as we watched the Canyon walls surround us and grow taller.

   But no matter how good the crew, the food, the weather, nor how grand the Canyon, if it is overcrowded and has dirty beaches, a maze of trails, noisy airplanes overhead, and water rising and falling, the Canyon solitude we all love will be gone.

   We must have guidelines to protect the Canyon and the “quality experience” for everyone on the River. And that means looking at the user days. User days have the single most important impact on the Canyon. Returning to the 1973 user days rate of 96,000 might be a next step to restore the vanishing quality experience of a river trip.