Mildred “Millie” Davis grew up believing that adventure was simply part of life. Her father, Bill Davis, took her sailing on the Great Lakes, climbing in Mexico, shooting cans off fence posts, and traveling wherever curiosity led them. Most importantly, he taught his daughter that if something was worth doing, there was no particular reason she couldn’t do it.

In 1950, when Millie was fourteen, the Davis family came west and launched a small Army-surplus rubber raft on the San Juan River. They floated through Glen Canyon to Lees Ferry, hiked to Rainbow Bridge, and later Millie and Bill descended the North Kaibab Trail to join a commercial trip through Grand Canyon. It was the beginning of an extraordinary father-daughter relationship with the rivers of the Colorado Plateau.

The next summer, fifteen-year-old Millie and her father were back. They ran the Colorado River from near Grand Junction through Westwater Canyon to Moab, then flew with their boat and gear to the Yampa River. From there they continued down the Green through Desolation and Gray Canyons to Green River, Utah. In Westwater, a wave swamped their little raft. They pulled into an eddy, dried their gear, bailed the boat, and continued downstream. Millie recorded that they camped that evening “very tired but happy.”