Best Family Reunion Idea Ever!

A Western River guest hosts a family reunion in Grand Canyon and describes it as the best way to spend time together as a family.

You can see the Grand Canyon from a lookout point on the North and South Rims, but until you have floated down the center of it, you really haven't seen the Grand Canyon. I don't know of a better way to see this creation than floating through the middle of it.

My first trip down here was 35 or 40 years ago, 1970. I had a neighbor, Jack Curry, he invited our whole family to come down. I had my ten siblings along and my parents. I was 18 years old. I was hooked. It was in my blood from the first trip on.

Running the river is about the most spontaneous thing you can do. You can run the same rapid 15 times and it's never the same. Every bend in the river changes, water level changes. When you come into big whitewater. you have every feeling. You have a little anxiety, a little tightness in the chest - there just isn't anything like it.

There is almost a uniqueness to certain trips. And this week it was the Little Colorado. We were floating small sections of rapids in lifejackets. Then we got out of the river and came around a turn and these two fantastic sumo wrestlers were there on the beach. Maybe the first sumo's to be filmed in the Grand Canyon. Like everything else, they were magnificent.

Actually, I found this my first trip down the Grand Canyon. It had John Wesley Powell's initials on it. Come to find out that The Powell Expedition had toothbrushes of this caliber was an amazing thing to me.

It's pretty tough to get right in against the waterfall but the three brothers are going to try.

I cannot recommend a better way to spend a week with family than what we have just done here in the Grand Canyon. There Is not an activity that can bring you closer with family and friends. Happy Mother's Day.

The only way to fold a tent is to get it between you and a beautiful woman and hug.

A person needs to make a break from what we call civilization, and that's what you get here. Even if you wanted to try and use a cell phone you can't. You're just in such a complete wilderness setting. I would just encourage people who want a unique experience in maybe one of the most beautiful places on the entire planet, to just set a few days aside on a calendar and come out and see this creation. And yet it's been thirty-some years since I was able to come back and now to have my sibling and my family with me. I don't think you'll find an activity that brings a family closer together than floating the river.