Well worth while!!!
This trip was so exciting and Western River Expeditions was first class. I absolutely loved the motorized pontoon boats. From what I saw and what I was told, they were the only outfitters on the river that have 5 pontoons on their boats. There is room up front for 9 people to sit on the 3 inner pontoons. I felt very safe in them and our captain was amazing....getting us through some of the roughest rapids in one peice. What I liked about these boats were:
1. They were fast--we saw 187 miles of the Grand Canyon in 6 days and still had alot of time to stop, eat lunch, take at least 2 hikes a day and get to camp by about 4:30-5 pm.
2. You can chose an exciting ride up front, straddling the pontoon like a horse and get the ride of your life. Or you can sit behind the pontoons for a slightly easier ride, or in back for a more sedate ride. We all took turns and it worked out great.
2. You can chose an exciting ride up front, straddling the pontoon like a horse and get the ride of your life. Or you can sit behind the pontoons for a slightly easier ride, or in back for a more sedate ride. We all took turns and it worked out great.
3. I felt very safe in these boats. The guides stressed safety in every aspect of the trip and taught us well.
The hikes were amazing. We did a ton of climbing. Our 2 main guides, Parker and Mark were remarkable in showing us how to do some very dangerous things in a safe fashion (ie: climbing way up to a 200ft water fall with some areas that were straight up, "spider manning it" up a creek with extremely narrow stone walls). I'm 52 years old and was a little nervous, but they had patience of saints and knew exactly how to instruct me to get up these climbs. It amazes me right now to think of what we did. the top of every hike was a treasure...we jumped off the top of a water fall and landed in a nice natural pool, we climbed up another water fall and found a beatiful oasis with pools and small waterfalls to wade and swim in, we found an aqua creek to swim in, a muddy river to float in (the Little Colorado) and so much more. Camping was first class. The food was amazing. You couldn't have gotten better on a Cruise. Everything was made fresh. As soon as we got unloaded off the boat, our guides would start preparing dinner. You could see them chopping fresh onions, peppers, mushrooms, fresh avacados for homemade guacomole, bananas Foster over ice cream. I have no idea how they kept everything fresh and cold. We were able to bring beer and wine with us. We were able to buy it in Marble Canyon before the trip. They kept it cold in the river. This was a nice touch with dinner.
The only downfall was that it was hot at night to sleep. The first cool breeze was at about 4 AM and we got up at about 5:45 AM (We were there the second week of August.) We were awoken to the announcement of Hot Coffee and wonder breakfast was soon to follow. I would say that even though I was somewhat sleep deprived, as soon as we got back out on the river, I was wide awake because it was just so exciting.
We are seriously considering going back for a 3-day excursion to see the southern part of the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead which we did not see on this trip. Having passed by all the other outfitters, from what I saw, none of them compare to Western River Expeditions. They are the only outfitter that I will consider.
Tracey - Ann Arbor, MI
Grand Canyon Rafting 6 & 7 Day
5 stars
