You step off the helicopter or leave your vehicle at Marble Canyon, smelling clean and perhaps wearing tasteful clothes. You may be carrying way too much stuff. Details of the last project you shoved off your desk may still haunt you. You may realize that you forgot to cancel the newspaper or ask the neighbors to water the garden.
Your river guides probably look rather scruffy. By George, they’re wearing long-sleeved shirts in bright sunlight, along with floppy hats and nylon sandals. Their feet are dry, cracked, and begging for pedicures.
Lacking another gesture to disguise the gnawing realization that you’ve paid a lot of money and committed a lot of time to a very big mistake, you may instinctively glance at your watch. Instead, just take it off. Leave it behind with your city shoes, your cell phone, thoughts of your job, and even your deodorant. There’s no need for those things down here, anyway. You’re better off bringing a journal, watercolors, or a flute. Take a deep breath and prepare to indulge the heart-opening luxuries you don’t have time for amid the daily grind.
You're about to embark on a vacation like no other: rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. You’ll hop into big motorized rafts or four-person rowboats at Lees Ferry, the shore of a wide part of the river that marks the dividing line between Glen and Grand Canyons. It’s a gorgeous place surrounded by towering vermilion rocks set against an unusually bright blue sky. From there, the boats simply follow the river, dropping lower each day as the Grand Canyon’s walls rise above. Your journey will reveal what the Colorado River has been up to for millions of years. Geologists have a simple way of describing it: River cuts down, sides fall in. And the farther you go, the lower it’s cut--down through the whitish Kaibab limestone and Coconino sandstone that were deposited around 270 million years ago, down through the orange-red Redwall limestone and the deeper hued, crumbly Bright Angel shale, and, finally--77 miles into your 277-mile trip--through the narrow Inner Gorge. There, pink-white granite has squeezed through close walls of black schist, forming radiant patterns or surrounding it so thoroughly that the schist is isolated in smooth, black blobs. The Inner Gorge, formed about 1,700 million years ago, contains one of the oldest groups of rocks in the Southwest.
The wildlife is just as diverse. On the rims, deer share the terrain with porcupines, rock squirrels, and ravens. Mountain lions traverse all but the steepest cliffs, where bighorn sheep are more at home. Deep inside the canyon are specialized habitat niches where singular species thrive--like a docile rattlesnake that’s colored pinkish to match the canyon’s rocks, and a giant water bug that senses the coming flash floods in the canyon’s tributaries and climbs out of its streams until the floodwaters pass.
It takes most people no more than a day to acclimate to a whole new set of priorities in the canyon: slathering on sunscreen, drinking plenty of water, and keeping eyes peeled for bighorn sheep traversing impossible ledges. There’s a rhythm to a river trip. You fall asleep to the sounds of water rushing past rocks and lapping against the shore. And you wake up on a beach, perhaps a little less surprised at that fact with each passing day. You pack up your tent fast, if you bothered to use it at all, so you can amble down to the kitchen and help make breakfast--or at least arrive in time to eat it. You do your own dishes, assembly-line style, on the beach. Then you take your place in a line to help load the boats. You throw on a lifejacket, and you’re off for another day.
Then you sit back and enjoy the smooth rhythm of the river, where your only job is to gawk, chat sporadically with your boatmates, and let your thoughts deepen. You’ll be jolted out of your reverie once in a while--this is a ride punctuated by rough-and-tumble rapids. In the first few days, moms on motorized trips display impressive acrobatics, clutching their children and gripping the luggage straps as the rapids come into sight. But near the end of the trip--as the rapids get gentler and as a newfound comfort sets in--those very same mothers are more apt to take pictures of their kids riding atop the luggage pile at the river guide’s urging.
Different guides lead different trips. Some like to stop in the middle of the day and lead hikes up side canyons in search of waterfalls, lush hanging fern glens, natural tube slides, and jewel-colored waters that are sometimes accessible only from the river, not by trails from above. The hikes vary in difficulty, and a passenger always reserves the right to pick a shady place to nap near the boats. All of the guides have preferred places where they like to put out lunch or stop for the night.
Hygiene is relative down here. It’s imperative to disinfect your hands after using the portable privy to avoid spreading food-borne ailments to the other passengers and the crew. Beyond that, you can bathe in the river if you wish, but it’s frigid--the water pouring out of Glen Canyon Dam comes from the deepest reaches of Lake Powell and can dip to the lower 40-degree range. It might make you feel better, but it’s not guaranteed to help you smell better. An experienced Grand Canyon guide once suggested that after Day 3, you’d do as well to rub coffee grinds under your arms.
The nights are often where the magic happens. That’s when passengers reminisce about that day’s rapids, when the guides are likely to pull out their harmonicas and guitars, and where the night sky gets as black as ever, far away from city lights, and the dark slice of the heavens between the canyon walls is filled with vivid pinpricks of light.
And when it’s all over, you’ll be different. You might ditch that job--or realize why you love it so much. You might get married, move to the Southwest, drive less, exercise more, or enjoy a renewed attraction to painting or music. If so, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time the Colorado River changed a life.
Side Trip: Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon
Lake Powell is another one-of-a-kind adventure. Its origins elicited the wrath of notable lovers of the West like Edward Abbey, when the Bureau of Reclamation built Glen Canyon Dam as a source of hydroelectric power. The lake filled in the beautiful Glen Canyon, which was a huge disappointment to people who knew it. But the lake, still surrounded by Glen Canyon’s stunning beauty, has become a spectacular and much-loved place in its own right. Information about lodging, restaurants, and activities like boating, fishing, swimming, and hiking is available at www.lakepowell.com and on the website of the nearby city of Page, www.page-lakepowell.com.
Antelope Canyon is a deservedly popular slot canyon formed by Antelope Creek, located on the Navajo Nation near Page. Its stunning, water-sculpted walls radiate buttery yellow light and an alluring vermilion glow when the play of sunlight is just right--and it usually is. Visiting Antelope Canyon is expensive; you’ll need to cough up fees to enter the Navajo Nation and to visit either the lower section of the canyon or the more popular upper section. Jeep tours take you to the upper reaches, where a modest, short hike reveals one of the most beautiful settings in the world. Take a jacket, because the temperature tends to drop dramatically where playful sunlight doesn’t reach the cavernous bottom. The lower canyon is longer and deeper, presenting a much more challenging hike, which requires the use of ladders at the most dramatic drops. Expect to hike lower Antelope Canyon with a knowledgeable guide, and be prepared for flash floods, which are surprisingly common in the Southwest. For more information, visit www.antelopecanyon.com.
Travel Essentials
Grand Canyon National Park’s website at www.nps.gov/grca/river/river_concessioners.htm lists 16 outfitters. You can expect to pay at least $700 for a short (three- or four-day) trip and $2,000 or more for most full-length trips through the canyon. Trips convene at various gateway locales including Flagstaff, Las Vegas, and Marble Canyon. Several companies, such as Hatch River Expeditions in Vernal, Utah, and Western River Expeditions in Salt Lake City, offer only motorized trips. These trips last about a week and don’t generally require passengers to hike in or out of the canyon. Others, including Flagstaff-based Arizona River Runners and Arizona Raft Adventures, offer passengers a choice to ride in oar-powered boats or motor boats. Rowing the length of the river takes two to three weeks. Expect a strenuous, nine-mile hike up and out of the canyon on the last day of a week spent rowing the first 90 miles. Or you can start off with a challenging hike into the canyon if you choose to spend eight days rowing the last half. Canyon Explorations, based in Flagstaff, and O.A.R.S. and Grand Canyon Dories, both based in California, offer nonmotorized trips in a variety of lengths that end at Diamond Creek or Lake Mead, where roads lead back to civilization. Some trips end at Whitmore Wash, where passengers are flown out by helicopter. Several companies also offer three-day options where passengers are flown into Whitmore Wash and take a whirlwind ride to Lake Mead. Most offer transportation packages for modest extra fees that cover both ends of the trips.
Weather in the canyon tends to visit all the extremes, particularly in the early season (April) and late season (September). Those happen to be the least crowded times on the river, which may be another consideration for people seeking the most peaceful experience. If you’re riding in the most popular part of the season--mid-summer--100-plus temperatures are a safe bet. All of the rafting companies provide detailed packing lists; sunscreen, durable water-friendly shoes, and sun-protective clothing appear on all of them. Be prepared to sleep on a beach, under the stars.
