Towards the end of July, 2002, my nephew Brian and his friend Drew came to visit. We had the opportunity to do a three day float trip through the White Cliffs section of the Missouri River with friends, and jumped at it. So here's a report of Brian and Drew and Gary's excellent adventure on the Missouri. Our party consisted of my friends Bill Cone and Carol Kulish, Mike and Phyllis Wells of Bozeman, and some old friends from Colorado who moved to Bozeman years ago and whom I haven't seen in 25 years -- Bobby-Joe MacKenzie and Kerry Reif.

We had four canoes with two people each, and one inflatable kayak. Drew paddled the kayak, and Brian and I paddled my canoe with all our gear. Here's BJ and Kerry, and Drew.

It's easy to see why this section is called the White Cliffs section. There is a band of white rock cliffs all along the river on the south bank, and sometimes on the north. It's wonderful rock, shaped by wind and water, punctuated by spires and arches.

Our first day on the river was hot. The river was pretty shallow in most spots, four feet or less. I hopped out and went swimming to cool off. When we got to camp, Drew jumped in and swam across the river.

As you can imagine, this was really hard, grueling work, just like it was for Lewis and Clark when they were coming up river, in big heavy boats loaded with literally tons of equipment... That's Brian in the bow of our boat, and Mike and Phyllis in the banana canoe.

Brian was a good bow paddler.

Our first camp was across from LaBarge Rock, at a campsite used by Lewis and Clark on May 31, 1805. LaBarge rock is a tall dark rock at the end of a long row of white cliffs.

Mike had learned from a friend that there was a fun hike up a slot canyon near camp, so most of us headed that direction. It was outrageous. A beautiful place, it reminded me of the desert canyon country in the Southwest. The canyon was actually two canyons which came together in a "Y". We hiked up one arm, over the top, and down the other arm.

After a fun scramble and squeeze up the first canyon, we climbed out and over a saddle, and crawled around in the formations up on top. That's Brian, Carol, Kerry and BJ in the first picture, Kerry and Carol and BJ in the second, and Brian in the last two.

There were amazing shapes all around. One of them reminded me of a camel with its head on a groundhog from one side, and a prehistoric serpent when viewed from the other.

Some of the formations seemed right out of Alice-in-Wonderland. Brian fit right in...

Then we found our way down into the second leg of the "Y". That's Brian getting ready to descend the log, and Brian, BJ, and Mike in the slot.

I am always amazed at where things manage to grow in environments like these.

Brian and Drew and I shared my tent, which was a little cramped. We wanted to sleep out, but the mosquitoes were pretty voracious, so the boys slept in the tent. Here's our camp the first night, with a great view of LaBarge rock. It was awesome when the moon came up; the surrounding white cliffs stood out brightly.

On our second day we floated down to the Hole in the Wall, which can be seen from quite a ways away. It looks like someone fired a canon through the cliffs. We stopped for lunch and hiked up to the hole.

Brian and Drew climbed out on this fin near the hole. Then we climbed around on all the knobs and hoodoos, and finally up to the hole itself. In the hole are Drew, Brian, Kerry, and Carol.

The last half of our day went quickly. For once, we had a tail wind! Everyone rigged some kind of sail. Brian and I sailed about 8 miles without ever paddling! We really trucked along. Imagine what we could do with a better rig...

We ate really well on this trip. Gourmet meals all around. Bill and Carol and the boys and I messed together, and the Bozeman crowd had an equally amazing meal plan. I think I gained weight. Here's BJ and Kerry with some of their dinner.

There were interesting rock formations all along the river. The ones pictured below are called Dark Butte, Eagle Rock, and Seven Sisters. Note the sails up in the canoes. That's Bill and Carol on the left, and Mike and Phyllis ahead of them.

Here are some more, unnamed but still amazing.

We didn't see lots of wildlife on this trip. There were a pelicans around, and ducks and geese. We enjoyed watching the pelicans and a raptor of some sort catch fish.

Our camp the second night was at a place called Slaughter River. Shortly after we got there, it started to rain. Some dived for tents, others grabbed rain gear and took refuge under the large cottonwoods. Bill and Carol waited it out patiently under their ground cloth.

On our last meal, Kerry made an old dessert which brought memories flooding back. She popped out a frizbee and made jello cheesecake in it. I hadn't had it in years but all I needed to see was the frizbee and I knew what was coming. Everyone enjoyed it as we passed it around... From left to right, counting heads... Brian, Phyllis, Carol, BJ, Gary, Kerry, Drew, Mike, and Bill with the cheesecake.

And an outrageously good time was had by all!