The Colorado River, which famously carved the Grand Canyon, is beautiful to behold and amazing to raft. Unfortunately, this crucial water source is also slowly going dry.
Average annual rainfall has been falling in the southwest for the last century, while climate change, dam construction, invasive species, and population booms in desert cities like Las Vegas have caused water levels to drop by half in some places.
Twelve years ago, author and anthropologist Wade Davis and his friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rafted the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in part to consider the river's troubled future and what we stand to lose.
They documented the trip in a gorgeous film called Grand Canyon Adventure: River At Risk.
Davis respects the power of untamed nature, and believes that we can't afford to lose the connection we have to wild place.
Davis is an Explorer-in-Residence for National Geographic. He has come to the Grand Canyon to research a book he is writing about the Colorado River.
Watch the whole film on Netflix >
His plan is to float 250 miles down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, to learn the history and study the challenges facing a river that is both a natural wonder and an important source of freshwater.
Watch the whole film on Netflix >
Their trip starts when Davis and his daughter Tara board the train that will take them to the entrance to the Grand Canyon. There, they will meet their friends and begin their journey down the river.
Watch the whole film on Netflix >
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