From May 29 to June 4, 2021 Heidi and I had the great pleasure of attaining one of my bucket-list trips, a fully supported commercial rafting trip on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon! We chose Grand Canyon Whitewater as our outfitter for the 7 day motor trip from Lee’s Ferry to Mile 187 (Bar-10 Ranch!), and we are so happy with our choice. Having flown for Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters 20 years ago, I had done the Bar-10 Ranch ‘self-loading river baggage’ shuffle, so it was really fun to be there as a customer!
Our guides Easy, Cora, Matt and Mike were an absolute pleasure and catered to everyone’s needs; they tirelessly worked from dawn until dusk, making certain that all 24 guests had a safe, fun and relaxing seven days on the river. Their knowledge of the river, geology, history and archaeology was impressive! Due to low flows from Glen Canyon Dam they had their work cut out for them , as a study was being conducted to evaluate sandbars. Typically this time of year flows range from 8000-12000 CFS (cubic feet per second), but for the entire week that we were out there, the river remained at 8000 CFS, typically the lowest water that guides see. This presented myriad challenges; some normally ‘moderate’ rapids (Hance) turned into roiling whirlpools of chaos, while some normally challenging rapids (Lava Falls) became a bit more tame. During our entire trip, there was essentially a ‘bathtub ring’ on the river approximately 2.5 feet above the water level, and our guides got to see exposed rocks that they normally traverse under 2 feet of water. Nearly all beaches (read: parking) which would normally be flat, had a 2-foot lip of sand to crawl up to get up onto the normal beach, and there was an abundance of algae revealed that was probably normally underwater.
Anyway, since this trip was an opportunity to spend some quality time with my lovely wife, I tried hard not to ‘work’ on this trip, and thus the landscape imagery (using the Canon R5) is not as comprehensive as it would otherwise be. If you are interested in seeing more images documenting the trip, please visit this page which is an assortment of images and videos I posted so that other guests and guides could check them out.
If you’re on the fence about doing this trip… just do it!
Click on any image to enlarge:
