but until you have floated down the center of it, you really haven't see the Grand Canyon.

i don't know

of a better way to see this creation

than floating through the middle of it.

My first trip down here was

thirty-five, forty years ago, 1970.

I had a neighbor Jack Curry. He invited our whole family to come down.

i had my ten siblings along, my parents.

I was eighteen years old and I was hooked. It was in my blood from that first trip on.

Running the river is about the most spontaneous thing

that you can do.

You can run the same rapid fifteen times and it's never the same.

Every bend in the river changes.

Water levels change.

When we come in the big whitewater, you have every feeling.

You have a little anxiety, a little tightness in the chest. There is just nothing like it.

There's always that uniqueness to certain trips

and this week it was the Little Colorado.

We were floating a small section of rapids in life jackets

and we

got out of the river and came around a turn and there were

these two fantastic sumo wrestlers on the beach.

Maybe the first sumos ever to be filmed in the Grand Canyon. of the grand canyon

Like everything else they were magnificent.

Actually, I found this my first trip down the Grand Canyon

and it had John Wesley Powell's initials

on it. To find out that

the Powell Expedition had tooth brushes of this caliber was an amazing thing to me.

Its pretty tough to get right in against the waterfall, but the three brothers are going to try.

I cannot recommend the better way to spend a week to what we've just done here

in the Grand Canyon.

There is not an activity that can bring you closer

to family and friends.

Happy Mother's Day.

The only way to fold a tent

is to get it between you and

a beautiful woman

and hug.

A person needs to make a break from what we call civilization,

and that's what you get here. Even if you wanted to try and use a cell phone, you can't.

You're just in such a complete wilderness setting.

i would just encourage people who want a unique experience

in maybe one of the most beautiful places on the entire planet, to just

set a few days aside on the calendar

and come out and see this,

this creation.

And yet it's been

thirty-something years since

i was able to come back and now to have my

siblings and my family with me.

I don't think you will find an activity that brings a family closer together

than floating the river.