Hi--
A few days a go I posted a Trip Report about our Vegas stay. I mentioned that as part of our trip, we also went River Rafting on the Colorado River. Some folks asked me to post a trip report of that journey as well, and I have posted in in the Grand Canyon Discussion part of TA. I tried to include a link to that TR here, but had no luck. Anyway, whie I know this is the Vegas board, and the TR is on the Grand Canyon Board, I am going to post the TR of the Rafting trip here as the second post as I had received a lot of questions about it. Hope it helps some of you decide to go!
Colorado River Rafting Trip (part of Vegas Vacation)
Our family (me – 44, wife, 43, son, 15, and daughter 13) just completed our summer vacation, This year we took a “combined” trip to visit Las Vegas, and a river rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. I have already posted the Las Vegas portion of the trip report on (obviously) the Las Vegas forum, and based upon requests from that report am posting the Rafting part of the trip report as well.
While we are a reasonably active family that enjoys recreational challenges, we are certainly in no means capable of independently rafting the Colorado River. So, back in November 2005, I did some web surfing and to see what the options were for taking a commercial river rafting trip through the Grand Canyon. There are 6-12 companies that offer these trips, but we ultimately selected Arizona River Runners (ARR) for three reasons: (1) they offered the trip on the dates we were available to travel; (2) they had a trip the length we were interested in; and (3) they offered the trip on a motor raft. A few thoughts if you consider taking a trip like this---book well in advance. I inquired about our trip in November of ’05 and several companies were already sold out, and ARR had only limited dates left. I would suggest booking a year in advance if you want your choice of dates. Regarding the differences between motor raft trips and oar trips---we selected the motor raft because you can cover more ground in a shorter period of time, the boats are larger and more stable, and there are typically larger numbers of people on these trips, so we thought our kids would have a better chance to meet other kids. One last thing—the trips are (in my opinion) expensive---we could have gone to Europe for the cost of our 5 night river rafting trip—so save your pennies!!
Anyway—we arrived in Las Vegas on August 5. ARR had made arrangements to pick us up from the Hawthorne Suites hotel at 5:30AM on the morning of August 6. They offered a discounted rate of $75/night if you wanted to stay there the night before the trip began. The hotel was fine for a night—kind of worn, but it was a two room suite with a kitchen. The bedroom had two double beds, and there was a sleeper sofa in the living room, so there was room enough for all of us. They have a decent pool, and a free breakfast buffet,; it was not where I would stay for an extended period of time, but it was adequate.
The morning of our trip we woke up at 4:30AM (we were told to be in the Hotel Lobby by 5AM). Each person is limited to bringing 25 lbs of gear. All luggage must be “collapsible”—like a gym bag. ARR sends you an equipment list of suggested items. As we don’t do much camping, we had to buy a lot before our trip. The most expensive items were the waterproof rain suits---you do need one because the water is cold!! I am embarrassed to admit it, but for the four of us, we spent over $1200 on clothes, etc. for the trip. You could get by with less. We were going to return to Las Vegas after the river rafting trip, so we left our “city” clothes locked in our luggage with the front desk at the hotel—they charged $5/bag for storage.
Everything ran right on time—and we boarded our bus to go the North Las Vegas Airport shortly before 5:30AM. They did give us a breakfast bag with some juice, an apple, and muffin before we left the hotel. Most people on the trip had stayed the night before at the hotel—we had about 25 people on our bus. There were a few families with kids our children’s age. The bus drive to the airport was maybe 25 minutes long----we were dropped off right in front of the terminal and took our bags inside. The airline staff who checked us in weighed and person and their bags---bags that weighed more than 25 lbs were charged $1/lb. (I am pleased to say we came in under the limit!)
We hung around the airport for maybe an hour and then boarded our plane. It was a dual prop plane—for those of you who have been to Vegas, the airline was Vision Air. I had never heard of them. Our group was large enough that we required two planes—I think the pllnes seat 16 people each.
Anyway, our flight was basically due east to Marble Canyon which is near Page, AZ—basically the eastern most point of the Grand Canyon. The flight took a bit more than an hour. It was a nice sunny morning, so we had good visibility and were able to see a lot of interesting topography. The airline provided headphones with a prerecorded commentary but the commentary did not match our flight path. No big deal—it was nice just to look out at the scenery.
Once we landed at Marble Canyon (which is in the middle of no where) we were greeted at the airstrip by Erica who would be one our guides for the week. She took us over to the building where we would have our orientation, and also unpack our bags to move them into the waterproof provided by bags provided by ARR. We met our head guide (Tom) who basically gave us the run down on the trip, talked about safety, some logistical issues, like setting up camp, etc. and then most importantly talked about “the bathroom”. This was a 5-night trip with no running water, and no indoor plumbing. Basically, when you had to pee, you were to go in the river—not behind bushes on the beach or in streams, etc. This was to protect the environment. To accommodate solid waste, a portable toilet would be set up and be made available in camp-the toilet was in a place that afforded some privacy. For the men, it was pretty easy to pee—we just found a spot, turned our backs and went. For the women, it was a bit more difficult. Most wore two piece bathing suits (or similar)—and the would typically find a place on the river by some brush where they could go about their business. It was kind of interesting how after only a few days, people would be a lot less inhibited about going to the bathroom in public. Tom said “if someone is looking at you while you are going to the bathroom, there the one’s with the problem!”
Anyway---we finally got ourselves set to go—before leaving there was a small store where folks could by beer, liquor, snacks, etc to bring along. ARR provided water, soft drinks, lemonade, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, so if you don’t drink (or you have to have a certain food), there is no reason to bring anything unless you drink (which we don’t). Oh, I forgot, in terms of packing, you basically are provided with three waterproof bags. The first is your day bas which you have access to all day while you are on the boat. People would put cameras, sunscreen, rain suits, an extra pair of shorts, etc. in these bags. The next bag contained all of your other personal gear, but you would only have access to it in camp. Each day it was packed on the boat, but you could not get to it. So, obviously, as you reached camp each evening you could get stuff from that bag and transfer to the day bag as needed. Finally, you were provided with a bag that contained a sleeping bag, air mattress, sheet, and inflatable pillow (all provided by ARR). This was made available to you each evening in camp.
So off we went to the boats—there were two of them—each was about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. We drove to the boats in a van that had a tailor with all of our gear. When we arrived, we got fitted for life vests, and formed a human chain to unload the van and move our personal belongings on the boat. We would repeat this every evening when we arrived at camp, and every morning when we left camp. We had 15 or so people on each boat and we started our journey.
The first day was really only half of a day as we finally got on the river about noon or so. This was the only day we stopped for lunch—all of the other days we made sandwiches and ate on the boat while we were moving to save time. In fact it was kind of funny—we were only on the river 45 minutes or so, before we polled over to the side and ate lunch that first day! I guess maybe now would be the best time to talk about the meals---each evening the ARR folks would make dinner when we arrived in camp. The food was good—not gourmet by any stretch of the imagination. One night we had salmon, one night hamburgers, one night spaghetti, one night fajitas—I forget what we had the other night. These was always a side dish and salad, and dessert. (You don’t want to go on this trip solely for the food—trust me.) Breakfast was either eggs, pancakes, French toast, sausage, bacon, and the like. Folks were always welcome to pitch in if they wanted to---it was kind of a social thing. They had a series of buckets with water, bleach, that you would wash/clean your plates/silverware in. They were seriously concerned with hygiene—apparently if someone gets sick, it is pretty common for a lot of people to get sick, and that can obviously ruin a trip. They brought a bunch of fold up chairs where you could sit and eat your dinner---no tables. Very casual---very fun.
When you arrived at camp (usually about 3-4PM each day), as I mentioned before, you would help unload the boats (took maybe 30 minutes), and then find a camping place. Every two people were allotted a tent, and while most people slept under the stars, most everyone set up there tent in case in rained in the middle of the night and you needed shelter. The weather was very hot and sleeping (for me) was the most uncomfortable part of the trip. I suspect it was in the upper 80’s or maybe 90’s most nights, so it was on the warm side. The first night about 10PM when everyone was down for the night, a big wind storm started with no warning---the winds were probably blowing at 40-50 mph. Anyway, because we were camped on a sand beach, sand was blowing everywhere, in everyone’s face, eyes, etc---everyone made a mad dash for their tents. The tents were full of sand, and because they were nylon, they were like ovens!! About 2AM the storm stopped and I went back outside to sleep where it was a bit cooler.
As far as the fun stuff—the rafting and hiking, it was pretty cool. Tom was incredibly knowledgeable about the history and geology of the canyon. Every morning, he started our journey with a reading or a poem about the canyon, the people who explored there, the native people who lived there---it was really quite moving. The first two days, the rapids are pretty tame, but things picked up a lot on days 3 – 4. The trip goes about 190 miles west from Marble Canyon and from mile 80 to 180 (or thereabouts) you get a run of some pretty great rapids. Before you would enter the rapid, the water would get amazingly calm, and then you would hear the faint roar of the rapids, gradually getting louder as you got closer. Tom usually gave us the history of the rapids as we approached, typically telling us who it was named after (usually someone who was killed trying to run it), how big/what class it was, etc. It is quite a rush to run some of them!
The scenery along the way is remarkable—being from the Midwest, it is totally foreign to me. The cliffs keeping getting higher and higher. The colors of the cliffs changes as the sun light moves and the shadows hit them differently. It is really quite stunning. We stopped and hiked at several places where we climbed 500-700 feet up on pretty rough trails. I think most folks in reasonable shape could make the climb, thought there were a few spots that were a challenge. In some cases you are walking on ledges that have maybe only 3 feet of clearance between you and a 400 foot drop. The reward for making the trip though are some absolutely gorgeous sights, including waterfalls, gorges, endless views of the winding Colorado River through the canyon.
On our last morning, we repacked all of our stuff into our personal bags and then were transferred to a helicopter which took us out of the canyon---that was pretty cool. We went up in groups of 4 or 5 at a time. From there, we went back to Vegas on a fixed wing aircraft (maybe a 45 minute flight) and were transferred by bus back to the Hawthorne Suites hotel. We hung around Vegas for a few days, and the first thing we did when we got to out hotel was shower. There was sand and dirt everywhere—I am pretty sure the hotel check in clerk thought we were homeless or something!
Anyway, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask away. I will be happy to try an answer.
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