If you enjoy amazing scenery and you didn’t catch the programme, check out BBC2s Operation Grand Canyon with Dan Snow on iplayer. The programme recreates the original exploration of the Grand Canyon in 1869 by John Wesley Powell. Like Powell, a team of 9 explorers travel in 3 wooden boats, built to replicate the ones used in 1869. The team seem to spend much of their time bailing the boats which appear to me to be going through the water rather than over it, and the whole experience looks extremely uncomfortable to say the least.
If, however, the staggering scenery of the Canyon along with the star gazing and the wildlife have made you wonder whether you could enjoy a trip, you can travel through the Grand Canyon in much more comfort!
You can take on as much or as little of the canyon as you choose on a modern purpose built raft, from day trips to the full 280 mile Lee’s Ferry to Lake Mead route taking from 6 up to 18 days.
There are a lot of operators offering trips. As the Grand Canyon is a US National Park, all trips must be licensed by the Park authorities. To make sure you are booking with a properly licensed operator, the best place to plan any trip is to start with the Grand Canyon National Park website.
View of the Colorado River from the air
There is currently only one licenced operator to run day trips, Raft the Canyon, so if that is your plan it is an easy choice.
There is however, a large choice of multi day trip providers and going through them all could take a long time. To help you decide what sort of trip you want a good resource is raftgrandcanyon.com which has a really useful summary of the various options available. There are also two companies that act as trip consolidators, Rivers and Oceans and Advantage Grand Canyon. These companies aim to help you decide which trip would be the most enjoyable for you and can also access availability details for all the companies providing trips. This is a very useful service as many trips get booked up a long way in advance, numbers of strictly limited to protect the Park, and finding a provider with slots available on your dates can be very time consuming.
I have never done a multi day rafting trip myself, being something on a non-camper. I do have some friends who have done a 6 day trip through the Grand Canyon. They say it was an incredible experience and they want to do it again with their kids when they are old enough. Their top tip – book yourself into a really nice hotel at the end of the trip. It will feel especially luxurious after several nights camping.
