May 2004
Guides
Passengers
Pre-trip
Day 1 - 5/13/04
Day 2 - 5/14/04
Day 3 - 5/15/04
Day 4 - 5/16/04
Day 5 - 5/17/04
Day 6 - 5/18/04
Day 7 - 5/19/04
Day 8 - 5/20/04
Day 9 - 5/21/04
Day 10 - 5/22/04
Day 11 - 5/23/04
Day 12 - 5/24/04
Day 13 - 5/25/04
Day 14 - 5/26/04
Day 15 - 5/27/04
Day 16 - 5/28/04
Trip dinner
Hints, tips, & links
Return to Robert & Courtney's main page
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My husband Robert and I did a 16-day rafting trip down the Colorado river through the Grand Canyon on May 13-28, 2004, with Canyon Explorations/Expeditions (otherwise known as Can-X). This set of webpages chronicles our trip. We had an awesome time on this adventure, and so I wanted to share our pictures and experiences with our friends (and anyone else interested in a Grand Canyon river trip!). Click on any of the links in the bar to the left to read my trip report and see our pictures from that day.
Why do a Grand Canyon rafting trip?
I had wanted to do a river trip ever since first reading the book "Canyon", by Michael Ghiglieri. I had visited the Grand Canyon for the first time while on a road trip during my junior year of college in 1994. We hiked down to the river and back, and I fell in love with the Canyon. When I got back to school, I ended up reading every book I could find in the library about the Grand Canyon. Ghiglieri's book told stories from his time as a river guide for one of the commercial river running companies, and his tales of big rapids, side canyon hikes, and the ability to see all sorts of cool places that are only easily accessible from the river made me instantly decide that one day I was going to do a river trip. I remember looking companies up on the web, and gasping in horror at the prices. It was obviously out of the question for a college student. (It is possible to do a private trip down the canyon for much less, but there's a 10-year wait list for a permit, plus you need to have all your own gear and have enough experience to row the rapids safely.) So I contented myself with going back to the Grand Canyon for hiking and backpacking about once each year, getting my "canyon fix". Whenever I reached the Colorado river, deep in the canyon, it renewed my determination to do a trip one day.
Eventually the time came, nearly 10 years after I had first seen the Canyon. My husband and I had the vacation time and finally had saved the money to go. I spent hours researching companies to decide which outfitter to go with. There are two main types of trips run by commercial outfitters - motor trips, in which the rafts are powered by motors, and oar trips, in which professional guides row smaller rafts or dory boats using only their own muscle power and the river current to get downstream. I knew I wanted to do an oar trip - I liked the idea of taking more time in the canyon, and not having a noisy motor disturbing the peace. In my research, I found that one company, Canyon Explorations/Expeditions, offered a trip called a "Hiker's Special", in which they gave special consideration to giving plenty of opportunities for hiking in the side canyons and other locations along the river. This sounded great to me, since I love to hike, so after some further research, I signed us up with Can-X for their May 2004 Hiker's Special trip.
We invited all of our friends to come on the same trip with us, and a few took us up on it. An old friend of mine from college, Jason Hollinger, signed up; and so did our friends Jeanne & Jim Atwell, from here in Colorado. The thought of sharing the experience with good friends made it even more exciting to look forward to!
The trip was even more terrific than I had dreamed of, if such a thing is possible! I highly recommend the experience, especially if you love to hike in the Grand Canyon. We saw so many cool places and got to experience so many new parts of the canyon. I also highly recommend Can-X - they did a great job in every way, and the guides worked incredibly hard to make the trip as cool as possible for all of us.
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