The Grizzly Peak area celebrates the rugged natural beauty of California's Sierra Nevada region. According to Native American legend (and Disney storytelling), A-ha-le the Coyote once met Oo-soo'-ma-te the Bear on top of the mountain. Coyote asked Bear to watch over and protect the land, but one day people came and tried to chase Oo-soo'-ma-te from the mountain. The great Grizzly Bear was strong and held his ground. When A-ha-le saw this, he turned the Bear into stone so he could never be driven away.
Many years later, a German emigrant named Jakob Probst stumbled upon gold in these hills and quickly staked a claim. He ultimately sold his claim to the Eureka Gold & Timber Co., which set up operations up and down the Grizzly River.
The mining company built several structures in the area, including a company office and employee store which are still around today. The stamp mill and water wheel sit alongside the river, along with the wooden ore trestle that once carried ore downhill from the mountain's mines.
By the 1950s, the mines were tapped out and Eureka Gold & Timber Co. closed for good. Years later, the office and company store were reopened to serve the needs of outdoor sports enthusiasts coming to Grizzly Peak for hiking, fishing, kayaking, mountain-biking and whitewater rafting.
Much of the land once controlled by EG&T was turned over to the government and became the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area, a state park that appeals to visitors with its natural beauty and thrilling Class V rapids.
Grizzly River Rafting Company was founded by a group of whitewater rafting enthusiasts who decided to convert their weekend hobby into a full-time occupation.
They purchased and renovated several of the old mining buildings as a booking office, housing for guides, a repair shop for rafts, and a dock for rafters to "put in" at the river's edge. Examples of the original mining equipment still exist. Some of which have even been pressed into use, such as the ore trestle, running in reverse now to carry rafts up to Grizzly Summit (Note that the elevation is listed as 1401 ft, a reference to the address of Walt Disney Imagineering at 1401 Flower Street in Glendale).
Once aboard the rafts, the journey starts off peacefully enough. We spot ancient petroglyphs, carved into cave walls by the mountain's earliest inhabitants, and hear the wind roaring through the canyon like the growl of the great Bear of legend.
Next thing we know, the pace has quickened. We sweep around Bristlecone Bend and suddenly splash down Bear Claw Falls toward the darkness of Eureka Mineshaft #13. Re-emerging into the sunlight, our raft bounces through Pinball Rapids and past Frog Jump Falls on the way to the Sluice Channel, where the river seems to drop out from under us. Our raft catches a snag and spins wildly into Geyser Gauntlet and on to River's End.
The spin you experience on Grizzly River Run is actually the result of a happy accident. During test runs in a mocked-up flume at the Imagineering facility, the raft really did get snagged on something unexpected, sending riders spinning out of control. Everyone enjoyed the ride so much, they set to work figuring out a way to ensure every raft on the finished attraction would spin down the final drop every time. The end result is one of the most fun and surprising whitewater raft adventures ever created.
I did not know this back story!!! Cool!!!
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