Lake Powell & Helicopter Ride over Grand Canyon

Day 16

We awoke early and it was already pushing 90 degrees by 8am; it was going to be a hot day on Lake Powell, but thankfully the water was a pleasant 72 degrees.  We loaded up our boat and began to make our way “up lake” in this canyon lake brought into being by damming the Colorado River.  

It was an extremely windy day and the lake was quite rough, but after 90 minutes we made it into the “other worldly” portion of the lake surrounded by towering canyon walls.  We pulled into one of the side canyons to stop, get a drink, and jump into the water to cool off – the water was refreshing and crystal clear.  

After several of us got back into the boat, Nancy was the last one to jump in and take a dip.  Unfortunately, as she was sitting on the top of the back seat to jump in, it flipped shut smashing her fingers and locking into place with Nancy’s full weight on the hatch.  I managed to get the hatch open to find two of Nancy’s fingers badly crushed and bleeding profusely.  The next several hours were quite terrifying as we were 90 minutes from the nearest marina with no cell coverage and out of emergency radio range.  The whole family jumped in to help! Carter kept his cool, bandaged the fingers and cared for Nancy on the entire boat ride back – looks like a possible future in the medical profession.  Courtney was in charge of communications and kept redialing until we reached 911 as well as Jay Reid (our doctor friend), who confirmed we were doing the right thing by heavily icing the hand  -- thanks Jay.  Brandt masterfully navigated as I drove the boat into what was now 30 mph headwinds and white caps.  Nancy was a trooper during a very rough ride back to the marina.  We pulled into the marina where National Park Service (NPS) EMTs were waiting on the dock and within 15 minutes Nancy was loaded onto a medical helicopter to Flagstaff, AZ (~3 hour drive), which was the closest Level One Trauma Center.

The kids and I caught up to Nancy after driving the 3 hours to Flagstaff.  Miraculously, Nancy’s fingers were not broken and had no apparent tendon or ligament damage; the doctor was surprised by this, given how badly Nancy’s fingers were mangled.  I want to thank the couple that stopped to help us before we began our journey back to the marina, the NPS medical personnel, Aaron the helicopter pilot, Ed the flight nurse, Dr. Earl the attending ER physician, and the amazing ER nurse Nicki for helping my dear Nancy.  

Thanks Nicki and for pain meds!

Unfortunately, Nancy’s days as a hand model may be over.  However, Nancy did get a helicopter ride over Lake Powell and The Grand Canyon, but dozed over the Navajo Nation.  After checking out of the ER that evening, I decided to check into a Holiday Inn Express to regroup.  Thank you for God’s protection and for using this crazy experience to draw my family even closer together.