How Do I Find the Best Grand Canyon Rafting Trip For Me?

Grand Canyon Rafting Trips: Find the Perfect Trip

by Rivers & Oceans, Inc: A Travel Company

Grand Canyon Rafting Trips in Grand Canyon National Park. Your No Fee, One Stop Shopping and Central Reservation Service. We book all the rafting trips with all the outfitters on the Colorado River...

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Going Tribal

Photo: Bob Melville

So, you have probably heard it said, many a time, by people who have done a Grand Canyon rafting trip, that it was “the best thing they have ever done, in their life”, haven’t you. I imagine you have an idea in your mind of what being on a trip is like, i.e.: the stupendous scenery, wet and wild rapids, good food, fresh air, but you probably wonder why so many people come back in a daze wandering around like the Kool-Aid is still circulating in their blood or maybe they have a touch of dehydration, you think.

Well let us skip the hype about the big fun rapids and the glorious scenery and get to something that most people haven’t a clue about when they start a raft trip in the Canyon. And here it is: you are going to go tribal!

A river trip is a natural homecoming back to the very basics of human nature - the simple tribal way. It’s what most people had no idea they were missing in their life. In this world of technology and indoor pursuits, tribal is an experience that most folks have never had and it can be enlightening. Your body and mind do not respond rapidly (no pun intended) to the realization that you are one with nature, it takes a few days to get into the rhythm of the simple life on the river. Your little group works together as a team to deal with the elements and the routine of life on the river, all alone at the far bottom of the Grand Canyon. Usually a few days into your trip you all become close knit group, a tribe, therefore, the longer the trip the better.

Now you may ask, “...but I don’t know these other people, what if I don’t like them” or “maybe they are not people I would ever associate with in my world”. I can tell you this; it will not matter. All those thoughts swiftly wash away, like sour vinegar in Lava Falls Rapid, when you are together at the bottom of the canyon. Everyone puts their life-jackets the same way and you realize quickly that you all are a team. The guides do much to alleviate the fear of the unknown; it’s not as if you have all been set adrift in a life raft in the open seas. The guides are confident, knowledgeable and have a great ability to deal with human nature. They do much of the work, but one quickly realizes that you still have to look out for each other. Whether it’s helping to put up each others tents in a windstorm, lending a hand to the one behind you on a hike or just making sure each others life-jackets are tight above the rapids. You quickly realize that your fellow traveler is going to be there to help pull you out of the water should you fall in and that you will do your best to help them if they go overboard.

By the end of a Grand Canyon rafting trip people have often become friends for life and they reminisce in the joy of their wondrous experience together for years.

US Fish & Wildlife Announces Volunteer Opportunity at One of the Most Beautiful Places at the Bottom of The Grand Canyon

Photo of Confluence of Little Colorado and Main Colorado, where volunteers spend much time.

Greetings!
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona Fish and Wildlife Conservation office in Flagstaff, AZ is looking for volunteers for our upcoming 2010 field season. Each spring and fall we conduct sampling trips to monitor native fishes in the Little Colorado River, a tributary of the Colorado River near Grand Canyon National Park. Our trips are typically two weeks long and use hoopnets to capture and collect information on native fish, including the federally endangered humpback chub (Gila cypha).
Sampling is conducted from three remote field camps along the river, with nets fished each day within a specific reach. If you enjoy hiking, these trips are for you! Due to the remote area in which we work, crews are transported to camps via helicopter, and contact with the outside world is extremely limited. We are looking for people who are comfortable in primitive camping situations and working in difficult or adverse weather conditions. We provide some travel assistance for qualified individuals. Please check out the attached document for more information. A biology or fisheries background is preferred but not essential. The dates of our trips are below.
If you are interested in volunteering, we ask that you please provide us with a resume or brief summary of your background, highlighting your experience in conducting fieldwork and working in remote situations, and contact information for three references that we can call to discuss your previous work history. Volunteers are selected on a first-come first-served basis, so apply early! In exchange for your labor, you will get to see one of the most remote and beautiful areas of the southwest, work with endangered species, and you will eat very well!
Thank you for your interest in volunteering! Feel free to call or email Mike or Randy with any questions you have. Also, please help us distribute this volunteer announcement and pass along this along to your students, colleagues and friends. We apologize but due to logistics, we are unable to accept volunteers coming from outside the United States.
We look forward to hearing from you!

2010 Little Colorado River monitoring trip dates:
Apr. 13-23, 2010
May 11-21, 2010
Sep. 14-24, 2010
Oct. 12-22, 2010
Contacts:
Mike Pillow – Biologist & Volunteer Coordinator
Michael_Pillow@fws.gov
928-226-1289 ext 112
Randy Van Haverbeke – Biologist & Helicopter Safety Trainer
Randy_Vanhaverbeke@fws.gov
928-226-1289 ext 114

See this site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpback_chub for information and photos of the endangered humpback chub being studied in the Grand Canyon

Add This Stop to 1-Day Rafting Trip

Historic Route 66 is the road you take to do a one-day whitewater rafting trip in the Grand Canyon, why not add on a stop at the quirky town of Seligman AZ, full of all that fun kitschy stuff from a bygone era when cars were king and driving Route 66 was the way to go across the country. Step back in time in this friendly town and throw in a entertaining tour of the Grand Canyon Caverns. Seligman is 30 miles from Peach Springs where you start the one day rafting trip and the Caverns is halfway between the two.

Hula Hooping in Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon Hula Hoop from Nedperry on Vimeo.

Maj. John Wesley Powell: A Famous Butt Pgymy's Quotes

“We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks into insignificance as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs that rise to the world above; the waves are but puny ripples, and we but pigmies, running up and down the sands or l0st among the boulders. We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! we may conjecture many things.”

“You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted, but to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths.”

“The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail.” “The glories and the beauties of form, color, and sound unite in the Grand Canyon - forms unrivaled even by the mountains, colors that vie with sunsets, and sounds that span the diapason from tempest to tinkling raindrop, from cataract to bubbling fountain.”

“The elements that unite to make the Grand Canyon the most sublime spectacle in nature are multifarious and exceedingly diverse.”

A rafting trip through the Grand Canyon is an amazing life transforming experience, with plenty of time for quiet reflections both on the water and off. Most people are unaware that the river is over 95% smooth water, so the rafts spend most of the time quietly floating past stunning scenery, beneath towering cliffs and buttes that make it clear that art imitates nature. The cliffs seem to encase Balinese statues, Egyptian pyramids and Roman amphitheaters within their escarpments that embrace the river.

The whitewater becomes more of a great way to cool off and experience one of nature most daunting features at the same time. Although, intimating, the rapids of the Grand Canyon are actually the least likely place one will get hurt on a trip. The most common injuries occur in camp and at night and a study done in the 1980’s found that rafting on a Grand Canyon trip is more dangerous than bowling, but safer than golf! So make sure you up date your life insurance before your next golfing excursion!

Camp lends itself as well, to many opportunities to get off by ones self and contemplate the flow of the river and nature. Even on hikes you can ask to stop off part way and photograph or draw. Some companies even encourage getting off by yourself and listening to the sounds of silence in the bottom of some of the mysterious side canyons, after informing your guide where you plan on wandering of course.

These days many people are enjoying these trips well into their 70’s and even older, as long as one is in decent shape and had the ability to negotiate on uneven terrain it is a trip anyone can do.