That I had been looking for,
Nearly a thousand miles,
With dread—
I thought:
Once past there
My reward will begin,
But now everything ahead
Seems kind of empty and I find I have already had my reward,
In the doing of the thing.
The stars,
The cliffs
And canyons,
The roar of the rapids,
The moon,
The uncertainty and worry,
The relief when through each one—
The campfires at night,
The real respect of the rivermen I met
And others…”
--Buzz Holstrom, 1937, during the first solo trip through the Grand canyon. The rapid he refers to is Lava Cliffs which is now inundated by Lake Mead