Rafting the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River

Wow, this was a big time bucket list item. It all started late 2023 when my longtime friend Lee Hunnicutt called Sara and me and invited us to join he and his wife Susan on a commercial rafting trip down the Grand Canyon. He had a bunch of friends in Salida, Colorado who were putting this trip together and there were still a few slots available. Lee and I were college roommates at the Citadel after we had both returned from Viet Nam. That was fifty four years ago so our friendship is long and wonderful.

The only rafting experience we had was a two hour ride down the Arkansas river where Lee lives in Salida, CO.  We were in Lee’s fourteen foot raft which he oared; it was very mellow and had no major rapids at all. The Colorado river would be very different. It has some of the biggest whitewater in North America so needless to say we were a little reluctant and nervous about signing up for a seven day trip. 

We thought we would regret not joining this wonderful adventure, so we decided to say "Yes, we’re in!".  We were also able to invite our good friend Karen Bilder (known as KB to her friends) who is one of our skydiving buddies. 

The trip was hosted by Arizona River Runners which is the premier rafting company for the Grand Canyon. We had a group of twenty eight, mostly people from Salida and California who were family members or friends. We were on two commercial thirty five foot motorized inflatable rafts with a driver and one assistant on each raft. Our crew was phenomenal. The man in charge was Brian Dierker. Brian is a legend on the Colorado river and down in the Grand Canyon. He grew up in the area and was on the river when he was thirteen and has spent 50 years rafting in the Grand Canyon. Every single rafter we encountered on the river knew Brian. His assistant was Walt, who was equally experienced taking people down the Colorado. He had been guiding for twenty seven years and his geological knowledge of the canyon was endless. 

Our other boat was captained by Page. She was an awesome young lady with seven years of experience on the Colorado and two years driving the big commercial rafts. She is also a professional Ultimate Frisby player and plays on the Arizona Sidewinders. Her assistant was Phil. This was Phil’s first time down the Colorado on a big commercial raft. He was in his twenties and lives in Telluride, CO where he's a mountain guide, speed flyer, and paragliding pilot. He was a friend of Page’s and was considering a career in commercial rafting.

The rafts were huge, thirty five feet long and about twelve to fourteen feet wide with an outboard motor. In the middle of the boat was an aluminum frame with metal storage boxes and place to strap on all our gear. The rafts carried all our bags, tents, cots, chairs, food, water, drinks and snacks, including an extra motor and plenty of extra propellers. You are truly in wildness with no options to resupply or stop at a gear store, so you must take everything needed for the seven days. We covered one hundred and eighty seven miles on the river, easily doing do thirty to fifty miles a day.

The trip started on Monday May 6th when Sara, KB and myself flew to Las Vegas the night before our trip started. Early the next morning we met many of the trip participants and boarded the bus to the Boulder City airport. We flew in a Cessna Caravan to Marble Canyon enjoying a great view of the area from the sky. Here we met our crew and connected with Lee and Susan and the rest of our group who had driven from Salida, Colorado. We had time for breakfast, and a briefing of what to expect for the start of the trip. Then took a short shuttle ride to Lee’s Ferry which is just south of Glen Canyon Dam. Here we  packed our gear into a large water proof bag to be loaded into the middle of the boat and a small waterproof bag accessible during the day. We were ready to start our journey down the Colorado river!

Sara and I made the mistake of getting on the boat last which put us at the front of the boat. As we started going through rapids we got completely soaked even though we had our waterproof jackets well buttoned up. The temperature of the river water was 50 degrees and the wind was blowing that day. We were soaked and got really cold to the point of shaking. Of course we were thinking “ holy cow we have six more days of this”. Finally we got to our first campsite, changed into dry clothes and warmed up.  Everyone on the boat was very supportive and everyone rotated so we could sit at the very back of the boat the next day. 

The campsites were on the sandy shores of the Colorado river. They were all incredible, with amazing views of the canyons and river. We really enjoyed relaxing in camp, chatting to people over dinner, listening to the singing birds and watching the bats flying around at dusk. Everyone had a different strategy for finding a spot that met their needs, some chose close to the boats so they didn't have to carry their gear too far. Others opted for more seclusion which meant carrying gear bags, tents and cots further up the river side. Of the six nights we camped we put our tent up twice, mainly because it was so windy the sand was getting everywhere. It was wonderfully relaxing and fun to sleep under the stars. Being down in a deep canyon with no lights around meant the night sky and stars were out and bright. I was able to setup my camera right next to my cot so I could take night photos without getting up.

Each day started at 5:30 with a loud yell from Brian with a thunderous “Coffee, Coffeeeeee“. We climbed out of our sleeping bags and started the process of getting dressed for the day and stowing our sleeping bag in our big dry bag along with other personal stuff like our clothes and toilet articles. As we were breaking camp Brian and his staff were cooking a fabulous hot breakfast for all of us. It could be eggs, sausage, hash browns or oatmeal or pancakes. It was always plentiful and very tasty. Once breakfast was over we started the process of bringing all our bags, cots, chairs, and tents close to the boats where we formed a double line from the bags to the boats. That’s when we started the “duffle shuffle“ passing everything from the shore back on to the boats. This was not easy. Some of the bags could weigh fifty pounds or more. On top of that, all the kitchen equipment had to be passed onboard - chairs, tables, cooking stoves, pots, pans etc.

And then there was “the Groover“! Everybody knew before they signed up for the trip that all urine had to go in the river, not a drop on the land. Poop had to go in the Groover. The Groover was an aluminum box with two handles and a toilet seat. The box was replaced every day with a new one. The Groover was set up each night in a discreet place out of sight from everybody, typically with a nice view of the river. 

Everybody got very comfortable and nonchalant about peeing in the river. Usually the girls would go on one side of the boats and men on the other side. At night everyone had a small personal pee bucket to avoid stumbling around in the dark trying to find your way to the river. Before the trip I was a little nervous about the peeing and pooping situation. Turned out it was a non- issue. When they instructed us on how the Groover worked I asked how it got it’s name. Brian explained the original Groover was a 20mm military ammo can with no toilet seat so when you sat on it you got two groves on your butt, hence “the Groover”.

Each day after we got the boats loaded and everything strapped down and secured we would start our journey down the river. During our 187 miles trip down the Colorado we passed through about 100 rapids. The rapids on the Colorado river are rated on a 1-10 point system. 1 is very mellow and 10 is a serious violent rapid where you better be holding on with both hands. Each day we passed through rapids that were exciting and definitely got us wet. It wasn’t until the third day that we faced a 9 rated rapid. It was definitely more exciting and huge walls of water but was also a confidence builder since we had two more 9 rated rapids to get through.

We would stop somewhere on the river for lunch, usually a place of geological interest or a good location for a hiking excursion. Lunch was simple and easy to fix like sandwiches but always tasty. We all quickly got into the routine of each day, and became a team that helped each other out when needed. A number of people had been river guides and others had rafted extensively which meant they knew what to expect on a 7 day trip. Brian jokingly told us the second night that we were all much better in person than we looked on paper. We think he looked at the list before the trip started, noticed the overall age of the group and thought "oh goodness this could be a rough trip"! 

We would motor on down the river and stop around 5pm in the afternoon to set up camp and have dinner. The meals were incredible, great fish or meat, fresh vegetables/salad, with rice or potatoes and always a desert. It was amazing what the crew could cook on the side of the river, we were particularly impressed by the lasagna made from scratch and a birthday cake! We all quickly got into the habit of washing our hands, and then washing all our plates and cutlery in each of the four water basins. The final rinse included a mild chlorine solution; it was critical with 32 people in the middle of wilderness that we all stayed healthy. 

After dinner we would gather and put our chairs in a circle for music provided by several of our group. On most nights Brian would bring a couple of tiki lights and give us an interesting little lecture on some of the history, folklore, or wildlife of the Grand Canyon. As we traveled down the river all of our guides explained the geology of the canyon. I distinctly remember sitting in the boat one day looking at a very tall canyon wall and hearing one of the guides tell us we were looking at rock formations that were 1.7 billon years old. It was truly amazing.

We rode with Brian and Walt on the first three days and then finished the last days on Page and Phil’s boat. On the fourth or fifth day we went through our second 9 rated rapid - Crystal rapid. They never told us too much about what to expect but on this rapid Brian and Page pulled our boats to the shore. They walked over to the rapid to scout and discuss their route and strategy. It was pretty violent with walls of water falling on us but not too terrifying. When we got through the rapid we heard Page say “ABC“.  Somebody asked Page what that meant and she said "Alive Below Crystal". Apparently Crystal has more boats turn over and accidents then any other rapid on the Colorado river. 

Here's a video of our trip, it's about 11 minutes long and is best viewed in full screen mode: Click here to view the video.  

Our final day there was great anticipation for our last big rapid. The mother of them all - Lava Falls. When we got to this one Page stopped the boat in the middle of the river and walked around the boat and inspected all our hand holds. That day Sara and I had ended up sitting on the front right of the boat, mainly because there were no other volunteers. Sara was in the front right position and had been getting soaked all day. When Page got to us she tightened the straps and told us that our position was going to get it, Big Time!! I was next to Sara in the number two position. The girl sitting next to me had been through Lava Falls before and told me it was terrifying - thanks Nicole!  

So we got our grips and entered the rapid. It was violent and we could only see a wall of water that encapsulated us. Several seconds into the rapid I thought to myself, this isn’t too bad. Then the boat heaved and I lost one of my grips and I thought oh shit this is very serious. We made it through and everybody was laughing, yelling, and very happy to survive Lava Falls. Phil stood up and announced we had just gone through the biggest, most bad ass rapid in North America. Finally that day we made it to our last campsite called Whitmore Wash. Brian wanted to get us there because the next morning a helicopter was going to come and take us to the Bar Ten ranch where we would fly back to Las Vegas.

Our last night was joyous for everybody. We had all bonded on this extraordinary adventure and gained many new wonderful friends. It was our last meal and they saved the best for last with a delicious steak dinner cooked on a big charcoal fire. What a trip. The memories of being down in the Grand Canyon looking up at thousands of feet of rock walls some of which were unbelievably old will never leave our minds. Big time bucket list. When we got home it took awhile to come down from the wonder of this fabulous trip.

Click here to see the photos!