RAFT TRIP DOWN GLEN CANYON

Some friends of ours told us to do the raft trip down Glen Canyon while we were in Springdale.  So, we did. Very glad we did.

We knew it was not a white water rafting trip.  It was one where you float down the Colorado river with a guide who tells you the history of the canyon.  Lunch was included.  They also had a big cooler full of water and cans of lemonade.  You could bring extra snacks in your wanted. They do the trip rain or shine. The only time the tours are cancelled is if there is a lot of wind in the canyon.  The rafts have a 135hp Johnson outboard motor, so you can move along through that canyon when the guide wants to.

We arrived at Page, AZ, in the morning and our trip was scheduled to leave at 10:00.  We stopped at the Visitors' Center for the Glen Canyon dam so we could see and get an idea of where our trip would go, etc.

Here's the bridge from the Visitor Center

Here's the damn from the Visitor Center

Back when the dam was built, the company built a 2 mile tunnel through the mountain in order to get the workers down to where they had pumped water out to build the dam.  Well, we were going to ride a bus to the dam, go down the 2 mile tunnel, and come out where our raft/guide was docked and waiting for us.  Since 9/11, dams like this are now under the watch of Homeland Security.  So, the company doing the raft trips gets to use the dam's tunnel but they have to abide by Homeland Security's rules.  They made everyone open up their backpacks and they searched through them to make sure no one had a weapon or anything suspicious.  I guess none of us did, so we loaded on the bus and took off. 

They told us that when we arrived and got off the bus, we would have to put on a hard hat and wear it from the parking lot to the raft.  We could take it off before we got on the raft.  This was for our safety because we would be walking under the highway and if someone threw something off the bridge and it fell that far and hit us in the head, it could cause us serious harm or kill us.

There we are with our lovely orange hard hats.

We arrive at our rafts and Nate is going to be our guide.  Nate is Navajo and grew up in Page, Arizona.  He knew a lot about the canyon and the area.  Milo is an intern this year for this company.  Milo is from New Hampshire.  He had been here doing a little training over spring break, but yesterday was his first day.  Welcome Milo!

As we took off and started out tour of Glen Canyon, here's the view of the bridge and the dam from the bottom.

Where we started, the canyon walls were 700 ft. tall, by the time we finished, the canyon walls were 1400 ft. tall.  There were other boats on the river.  All were fishermen.  The water was so clear that you could see fish and in certain areas, there were a lot.  They have a lot of rainbow trout, but they are not native to the river.

After we had been on the river for about an hour, we stopped at a beach for a restroom break and to see some petroglyphs (cave markings).  One of the other raft guides who is also Navajo gave us the history of what each drawing probably meant.  Pretty interesting stuff.

 

 

After about 30 minutes, we got back in the rafts and took off.  The weather was really beautiful and the scenery was pretty awesome.  You exit the canyon and dock at Lee's Ferry.  If you want to do the white water trip down the Grand Canyon, you start at Lee's Ferry.  We saw several rafts that were full of gear ready for that trip.  Nate told us that a group would be leaving the next day.  Our bus was waiting for us when we docked.  The trip down Glen Canyon is 15 river miles.  We arrived back at Lee's Ferry at almost 2:00.  Our bus trip back to Page was almost 1 hour.  It was a great day and if you are ever in the area, do this raft trip. A big shout out to our friends Mike and Lisa Deen for recommending it to us.