Trip of a Lifetime – Grand Canyon Adventure!

Oh, my gosh! What a great adventure it is to raft through the Grand Canyon!  We heard it was a trip of a lifetime, and it was.

The night before the trip we stayed at the Marble Canyon Lodge. The night air at the lodge was velvety soft and gave us hope for good weather for the trip. Early the next morning we were bused down to Lee’s Ferry where we were to board the raft. Newty was our guide and gave us a great orientation and we were off. As we had hoped the weather was great, (usually in August it is HOT!) so we were lucky. The scenery was beautiful and the rapids were fun. We camped that night at Indian Dick which if you were to look around you might figure out why. To be politically correct, they now call it American Native Richard Point.

There was another raft that was part of our group. Each raft had 14 guests and the two boatmen. It didn’t take long to begin to bond with the other travelers. Really nice people, some from the East, one from California and a bunch from Utah. In fact one family were neighbors and friends of John and Sarah. We were provided with a cot, a sleeping bag and a sheet. The cots were great, you could set one up in under a minute, and all you needed was a sheet to sleep under until near morning when we crawled into our bags.

In the canyon you go to sleep when it gets dark, about 8:30 and get up when it’s light, about 5:30. Newty has a conch shell which he blows when it’s time for appetizers before dinner, then for dinner, and in the morning he wakes us with it and a call for “coffee”, and then another blow for breakfast.

The meals were great, and pretty amazing considering everything was done outside. Of course everything is carried on the rafts so there was alway a “fireline” to get all the gear and cooking equipment on and off the rafts. It worked out well, and went fast.

I won’t go through everyday, suffice it to say that the surroundings were overwhelming...you get such a feeling for the creation as you go further and further down into the earth and see each layer, upon layer of the earth’s crust. Sunday, though we couldn’t go to church, just floating down the river and taking in the magnificence of the place gave us a spirtual lift.

The rapids were such fun. A couple of them are the biggest in the US, and what a ride, felt like we were in a rodeo on a bucking bronc.

There are wonderful waterfalls, one that just pours straight out of the cliff and falls for hundreds of feet...really more impressive than any I’ve seen in Hawaii. And then there is Havasu Canyon. Oh, my goodness...pure aqua water pouring over pool after pool as it makes it’s way down the canyon walls to the river. Our friend from Conneticut said, ‘surely, this has to be the most beautiful place in the world”.

The last night of the trip was the ‘formal’ night and captains dinner. It was to be very special and of course it decided to rain. I mean RAIN. Fortunately we had decided to set up our tents just in case and we barely got everything inside as the rain hit. The staff was preparing this wonderful meal for us and just covered everything with foil and pans and took cover. Still when the rain ended they re-appeared and before we knew it they were bringing shrimp cocktail to us in our tents. It was pretty fun.

On our last day, or I should say, morning, we were only on the river until about 10:00, then we landed, took our gear off the raft and were lifted out of the Canyon by helicopter to the Bar 10 Ranch where we had a nice hot shower (our baths on the river were in the river in 40 degree water) and lunch. We were then flown back to Marble Canyon by plane where it all began and we got back to the ranch about dinner time.

Great time, we won't forget it!

Sandy
Arizona
Arizona - Grand Canyon Rafting 6 & 7 Day