Floating through prehistory

A raft trip down the San Juan River is way too good an experience to save for tourists.

And now that the weather has cooled off and most of the tourists have gone home, what better time for us locals to enjoy one?

Wild Rivers Expeditions has been offering both one-day and multi-day tours of the silty river road through pre-history since 1957. The 26-mile day trip starts in Bluff and ends around Mexican Hat, but if you think you know the route from the road, you're in for a surprise.

The river meanders through a magical world of yellow-tinged cottonwoods and contorted geology, where great blue herons and Anasazi spirits peer out from the coyote willows.

Well-preserved ancestral Puebloan ruins and layers of petroglyphs line the canyon walls. People have lived here for at least 8,000 years, and from a raft you can observe the canyon more or less as they would have seen it.

Even the desert bighorn sheep and yucca plants that feature prominently in their pictographs are still here.

The $165 price tag seems high for a one-day tour of one's own backyard, but by the end of the day, you'll consider it a bargain.

After eight hours with our extremely knowledgeable (and photogenic) Diné guide, Marcus Buck, my party felt like we had had a crash course in geology, archeology and natural history.

Although he's only 28, the Bluff native has been doing this for 10 years and is proud to note that he has never stopped studying the place (so your tour might be even better than ours). He can tell you the names of every geologic formation the river cuts through, when it was formed and whether it was a sand dune environment or a shallow sea.

He can point out the differences between the four swallow species that swoop toward the river hunting insects, and knows the age of each ruin and which of the several ancient cultures that lived here built it.

He even pulled out and played a wooden flute, adding to the enchantment of Snake House, a gorgeous two-story ruin the Hopi believe was the original home of their Snake Clan. (As if on cue, a little pink-and-grey serpent crossed our path there, the only one we saw all day.)

My husband and I generally prefer non-motorized travel, but the small motor propelling Buck's 14-foot rubber raft was surprisingly quiet and enabled us to skim through long flatwater stretches that had folks we passed panting at the oars.

Another good reason for a guided tour this time of year: The water is low and the guides know from years of experience where the deepest channels are.

If you're nervous around whitewater, this is the trip for you. There are a few stretches that might have been spooky in a canoe - including one rapid that is reportedly a Class 3 in high water - but the motorized raft skips across the crests with no problem.

You have to be a bit outdoorsy to enjoy the trip - there aren't, for instance, restrooms aboard unless you count the plastic-lined ammo box - but for those used to paddling their own canoe, it's downright luxurious.

At Snake House, the major stop, Buck put out a wonderful cold cut spread with veggies from Wild Rivers' own garden and fresh ciabatta that one would hardly expect to find hundreds of miles from the nearest Italian deli (he also introduced us to a local river delicacy: Oreos and peanut butter). Gorp and ice water are available on the raft all day in case beautiful scenery makes you hungry.

All the new knowledge aside, for me the main value of the trip was the relaxed pace of being on the river. In the face of so much human and geologic history, the annoyances of the modern world seem downright trivial.

Wild Rivers is headquartered next to the Recapture Lodge on Main Street (U.S. Highway 191) in Bluff. Information: www.riversandruins.com.

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