Diamond Creek Wash
The Diamond Creek Wash is a real location in the Grand Canyon where Diamond Creek joins the Colorado River.BB22 Some maps, including Google Maps, call it Diamond Creek Beach. Plug 35° 45' 57" and -113° 22' 15" into Google Maps or Google Earth to see where it is or click here: Diamond Creek Beach for an instant look. The ten white buildings are Diamond Creek Campground.
Diamond Creek Road, a dirt and gravel road (Indian Route 6) runs about 20 miles (32 KM) from the beach to the top of the south rim, where you find the town of Peach Springs. Route 66 and the BNSF rail lines link Peach Springs to the rest of the world. From Peach Springs to Flagstaff is about 115 miles (185 km) or about 2 hours of driving east on Route 66 and then Highway 40. From Peach Springs to Kingman is about 70 miles (112 km) west, all on Route 66, but due to the road the driving time is the same, about two hours.
Interestingly enough, the Hualapai Indian tribe has their own raft company (Hualapai River Runners) and run one-day trips that start at Diamond Creek Wash in the morning and end around 8 hours later at Pearce Ferry on Lake Mead. The rafts cover only a small portion of the Canyon, all on tribal lands. They pass in front of the high red cliffs that form a backdrop to the east end of the lake, and which are particularly striking at sunset.
In the Spearfish Lake Tales Universe Canyon Tours uses the Wash / Beach as the ending place for their raft tours.DW1
Diamond Creek Wash is at roughly Mile 240 (river miles from the raft put-in at Lee's Ferry), and normally took the rafts eighteen days to reach Diamond Creek Wash.BB21
Jeff Pleva or Ray Reynolds uses the crew bus to run the customers up the dirt road and up the hill to meet the tour bus (waiting for them at Peach Springs) to take them back to Flagstaff, Las Vegas, or wherever the tour started from. Once they are on their way he doubles back to Diamond Creek Wash to pick up the crew and take them back to the Canyon Tours building in Flagstaff. Until he gets back the the boatmen and swampers are loading the rafts, etc. onto the flatbed trucks.
Other rafting companies use a mix of raft sizes, including the larger "S-Rigs" (outboard-powered rafts) that are too big to fit up the Diamond Creek road to the highway. These larger rafts have to continue across 50 miles of Lake Mead to the larger landing at Pearce Ferry.
