2022 April Grand Canyon White Water Rafting Trip
As part of our 2022 trip out west to visit several National Parks, we spent a week rafting down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Several of our friends from a the “wine group” are on this part of trip and it was a wonderful adventure. This blog is also part of our full “April 2022 Trip Out West Trip” blog.
For a quick overview of the trip down the river check out video below.
April 12
We stayed at Marble Canyon Lodge and overnight the wind gusted to 60 mph. We woke this morning to a much cooler day, 45 degrees, and the wind is down to 15 mph. Today everyone hit the restaurant at 6:30 am with everyone else in the area. One poor waitress got to serve us all. Our breakfast arrived at 7:15 and we were to meet our group at 7:30. Due to the wind, the group coming from Vegas from didn’t arrive until 8:30 so we had time to eat our a good breakfast. Two small planes made impressive landings on the tiny airstrip. We all went to the rafts, had orientation packed the two rafts and started down the river. The canyon is deep and beautiful. We are told it will get higher as we travel. We stopped for lunch and discovered that we will be eating very well this week. The four guides Scotty, Justin Ben and Reese set up a large spread for us. We traveled a couple more hours and saw condors, ravens, and hundreds of mud wrens as we traveled. We also saw a long horn sheep family. The two babies were very cute.
It was cold all day with lightly blowing wind, but it was sunny. We arrived at our first overnight beech. We unloaded all equipment, learned to set up our tents, and had an amazing dinner. We have an appetizer, salad and main course and desert each night. Tonight’s was delicious homemade spaghetti. By the time we cleaned up dinner it was getting dark (about 8 pm) One thing we are learning is that the sand that is along the Colorado gets into and on everything. Tonight we changed clothes out of our wet clothes into warm clothes for the evening. It didn’t take long for everything to have a coat of sand, clothes, tent and inside bags. One of the challenges to living on the river in a national park is that you pee in the river and your bm is in a special toilet that gets carried out of the park. All waste is also carried out. So, we are very careful not to leave anything behind and to pick up something if we see it.
It is a very cold evening when we crawl into our sleeping bags. All tents are very close to each other and we had three different snoring men close to us. Made for a rather unrestful evening.
April 13
It is very cold this morning as the bugle calls to tell us coffee and hot water for tea and cocoa are ready and it is time to get up. We roll out of bed, change, tear down our tents and cots and pack our waterproof duffle bag and our day pack. No one is too thrilled to the possibility to get wet in the very cold river but we head off. The raft has three zones. The front zone is where you get the most fun ride and get soaked, the next level is where you don’t get as wet and ride on seats, and the third zone is farther back and is the quietist and driest, although you will get splashed no matter where you sit. Today, everyone sits in the back two zones. We head out and encounter a number of rapids in the first ten miles. We see several other groups riding the river, all in smaller rafts that they are paddling. Those trips take two weeks instead of the one week we will be on the river. No one in our group seemed too excited about the possibility of taking that trip. The sun was bright and the wind was much lower today. We moved farther into the canyon and the rock formations were different and interesting and were getting higher. We will drop about 1700 feet as we go through the canyon and the canyon is getting wider and the walls are getting higher. We passed a place where cliff dwellers lived and learned a bit about their nomadic life and how they lived and protected their food from others in the holes in the wall. We saw lots of ravens today. We were warned that they are smart scavengers and will open your bags and try and steal shiny items and food. They descended on our camp site as we moved out. One new bird to day was a blue heron and we saw deer drinking from the river. We stopped and took a hike to a cave and one to an old ship reck and learned about the life of the folks who explored the river in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. It did get to about 60 this afternoon which was quite comfortable. When we set up camp for the evening lots of folks were washing in the very cold river and washing clothes, including us.
It is Kris’s birthday so we had kind of a private dinner and then took her to the large group for a birthday cake. She was surprised and felt very loved. This is exactly what we hoped for. At dark, most people headed to their tents. Morning will come early.
April 14
Today we are up at 5:30 as the bugle blew to let us know it was time to get up and the coffee and hot water were ready. We had breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausages, closed up camp quickly and started down the river for a long day. The dam up river let out some water overnight and the guides wanted us to go through a long series of rapids on high water. We did just that. We went through small, medium and large rapids and moved 60 miles down the river today. The large 9-10 level rapids had us doing roller coaster rides into deep holes and up again. Some of the rapids had holes so deep that we were thrown off out seats, multiple times. The strength of the water is frightening and awesome. There were a couple of injuries today. One guide was hurt while trying to save some women from falling off and getting hurt. One woman hurt her hand while trying to hold on. By evening both had swollen, colorful, body parts.
We were soaked many times today. We were all so wet at lunch time that everyone pulled off layers of clothes to let them dry in the sun. The afternoon had even more large rapids. We passed many different types of geological formations today, saw more animals and birds, and saw some desert plants. There are several yellow flowers in bloom and some of the succulents are in bloom. We traveled about 1/3 of our distance today to get through some of the biggest rapids and to give us time tomorrow to do some fun hiking. Again the food was amazing with make your own sandwich for lunch and Mexican dinner. It is mild and warmer today and everyone enjoyed time sitting near the water listening to each other’s stories and the rapids flowing in the river. Later in the evening a guitar came out and one passengers who makes guitars played while a guide played a keyboard. Who would have thought that we would end the day with beautiful music?
April 15
It is getting warmer every day. We woke this morning and it wasn’t cold to get out of our sleeping bags. After another hardy breakfast we headed off for a group of big rapids. The large rapids, level 8-10, feel like a bucking bronco. We have learned how to place our hands so that we can brace ourselves without hurting our wrists. We are getting plenty of practice as we go down the river. One stop today gave us a chance to hike to a waterfall. All hikes include climbing/walking along large rocks. Hidden in a cove was a waterfall and swimming hole. The more adventurous jumped off the top of the waterfall into the ice cold water. After lunch we stopped for a hike in a long slot canyon. At the very back of the canyon was a small waterfall. The colors on the many layers in the curvy rock were gorgeous. Half way through the hike back two of our guides pulled out guitars and sang songs that one had written. They were all about rafting or the canyon. Some were funny and some were serious and quiet. We stopped a little early tonight and got to enjoy a long evening on the beach. We all swam/got cleaned up in the cold river as it is now about 85 degrees in the afternoon. It was a restful evening and tonight we decided to sleep under the stars. It was fun to watch the moon slowly come over the canyon. Stars started to disappear as the full moon put out so much light that it was like twilight. It started shining in my eyes so I turned over and put a sheet over my head. Everyone who got up in the middle of the night to us the portable potty said that no light was needed.
April 16.
This morning was the first one that I didn’t want to get up when the first bugle called. I was sound asleep. We had to wake up Kris as she was really enjoying sleeping outside. We had fruit, French toast and pork chops for breakfast. Breakfasts are filling but they say we will use up the calories. They make something they refer to as cowboy coffee. They have a huge metal pitcher that they dump coffee grounds in and fill with boiling water. They then have a funnel with a coffee filter that keeps some of the grounds out. Dean says it grows hair on your chest. I brought tea bags and enjoy a civilized cup of tea each morning.
Today we start out with a series of big rapids. We are getting pretty good at these. There are 5-6 groups rafting this week. One group is rowing, yep rowing and their ride will take two weeks. We heard from another guide that a raft got caught on a rock yesterday in the first rapids we went through. They had to be rescued and were so worn out that the one company let them join them on their beach. Every afternoon it is a scramble to see which tour group gets to stay on which beach.
Our first stop is a two hour hike to a waterfall and then up the cliff above the waterfall to an oasis hidden up in a canyon. It was one of the most challenging hikes we hav had in a long time. It had everything, climbing rocks, slippery sand, skinny ledges, beautiful canyon and lots of water. There were a couple of minor injuries as people hit their heads on rocks. After we returned we boated a short distance to a plane to stop for lunch. The wind had picked up a lot and one raft ran into the other one as we landed. One woman had a foot hanging over the edge and her heal was injured with a huge slash. All the guides are EMT’s and we had a couple of doctors and lots of nurses so they got her bandaged up enough to get her out of the canyon in a couple of days where she will need to get some stitches. She is a trooper but her two sons were pretty sad seeing Mom injured. Dad did his best to make them feel better. The youngest elated on the pile of bags behind her until Dad convinced him to get some lunch.
After lunch we road a few more miles down the beach and then found a place to stop for the evening. It is blowing like crazy and setting up tents felt like flying kites, but we got them all up and then relaxed in the water and on the beach. Tonight we had lots of time to relax. We watched our guides making dinner with Kris acting as commentator as you would hear on a cooking show. Since the desert was flaming bananas jubilee, this seemed appropriate. Due to the wind blowing so hard we slept in a tent again tonight. The moon is so light here that it seems like a light shining in your eyes. It is actually darker when we wake up and the moon is behind the hills than in the middle of the night when the moon is high in the school.
April 17
We woke to a beautiful morning. This our last full day on the river. We had a “typical” breakfast for us. Yogurt, bagels, cereal and fruit. After we tore down camp and loaded it all on the rafts we headed out for a very active river day. After two hours of rapids and smooth river ride we stop to hike to a waterfall. Today we stop in the middle of a rapids and tied off on a rocky cliff. We climbed up and down and up and down lots of rocks though a canyon with a river, lots of waterfalls and plants. It was quite the oasis! We had a couple of hours to explore and enjoy the water. We spent part of the time finding lizards and butterflies and interesting plants. In the afternoon we hit the only 10 rapid on the trip. Dean road the front porch and Sue was right behind. Shortly after the big rapid Ben found a great spot for our evening camp. We unloaded the rafts, set up camp and had some time to clean up and rest. Tonight our small group is sleeping under the stars, so we only needed to set up cots and one tent for changing. By now we have all managed to walk in on someone relieving themselves or changing so some don’t even bother to put up a tent for changing. When the bugle blows for appetizers, the guides show up dressed in formal attire. Some may have black shorts rather than long pants, but they do look quite dressed up. They had each of us a shrimp cocktail with a lot more shrimp than you often get at a restaurant. By dinner time we are all lined up watching the cooking action. Our last supper is New York strip steaks cooked to order, salad, mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. To top it off they made cake in the Dutch ovens. We learned about how we would leave tomorrow and went to bed at dark and watched the sky full of stars as we drifted to sleep.
April 18
Today is the last day of our adventure. We are up at 5:30 as usual to Scotty’s bugle. First call is for coffee and hot drinks. Since we all slept out under the stars, taking down the camp went pretty quickly today. We all found our way to the river to relieve ourselves, or to our large cups or to the ports potty if you only needed to have a bowl movement. Who knew that a typical morning routine could be so complicated when you were to leave nothing behind when you leave a place. Breakfast bugle revealed eggs Benedict for our final breakfast. They have fed us quite well!
We load all the gear on the boat with some changes. Another group is getting on the raft when we leave. Somewhere in the bowels of the rafts are clean sleeping bags, sheets, etc. We help take the dirty stuff to a holding area and set up the new bags for the new folks. Then we ride several miles down river to a helipad in the canyon.
The flight out of the canyon and in our case back to Marble Canyon to resume out National Park trip was special and exciting. The “helipad” is so small we didn’t believe it was a pad until we climbed off the rafts with our duffels. They were spraying the area with water to keep the dust down before the helicopter arrived. We and our luggage were weighed and we were told who was riding the chopper and where to sit. First group was those of us going to Marble Canyon. We had an amazing ride over the canyon to Circle 10 Ranch where we took hot showers and had access to real bathrooms before enjoying a sandwich bar. It took six rounds to get everyone to the ranch. As we watched our friends land and come in we were told that it was time to board our Grand Canyon airline plane and fly back to Marble Canyon. 5 of us and the pilot loaded a plane that could take 11 people. We road up the canyon for about a half hour watching the terrain change from above. It was surprising to see small patches of snow still on the Northern rim as we passed it. 85 degrees on the southern rim and still cold on the northern. Marble Canyon was about 80 when we landed at 11:30 am. It was hard to believe that we had torn down camp, had breakfast, loaded the rafts, rafted 3 miles, rode a helicopter, gotten a shower and lunch at a ranch, and rode a plane for 30 minutes and it wasn’t even noon!
Below are some video clips of our flight out of the Canyon.
We relaxed a bit at the restaurant with some iced tea for Sue and a milk shake for Dean. Then we went hiking for a couple of hours in the Vermilion Canyon. First hike had lots of hills and it was getting hot so we decided to try a slot canyon. It was cooler but after a mile required hiking through some pretty disgusting looking standing, green, slimy water. We looked at each other and said “no” at the same time. So we turned around and walked back to the car and checked into the hotel, did some laundry and organized the chaos in our bags. After a relaxing dinner Dean announce that it was 8:30 and time for bed. Guess he liked the early to bed and early to rise routine. Tomorrow we continue on with our National Park trip.
