C&Y Adventures

16 Days of Rafting/Hiking on the Colorado River

October 15th, 2014

This will be a long blog of our trip through the Grand Canyon. We started on the evening of Sep. 28 for orientation and our river bags to pack our belongings. Sunday we were up at 05:00 to be downstairs in the hotel by 06:00. We took a bus from Flagstaff to Lees Ferry and the start of our trip of 226 miles (362 km.). There were 6 rafts – 1 paddle raft with 6 guests and 1 guide and 5 rafts with a guide using oars. All of our supplies for the trip were packed on the rafts. Each day we had hiking that could be as short as 1 hour or as long as 7 hours. Some of the hiking was fairly technical with scrambling over boulders and climbing up rock walls. Often we were hiking along a creek in side canyons so we were in and out of water while hiking.

Both Yvonne and I spent time on the paddle raft as well as trying the oars. I learned to row forward but could not read the river well. Our guides were very friendly, knowledgeable and encouraging. For the first half of the trip there were 18 guests and 16 for the second half. All the guides were very a good cooks and we had great meals. All but one night we slept under the stars. Sleeping on the ground took a bit getting used to. We were up early, usually by 05:30 and often ate our supper in the dark with head lamps. Since it got dark early we were always in bed early so got lots of sleep.

The Colorado River has a lot of silt in it so it is quite brown looking. There are over a hundred rapids that we went through and a few required checking out prior to entry. Many times we got wet and we even had the opportunity to “swim” a few rapids.