July 26, 2013 - Friday

We woke up at 4:30 to leave at 5 in order to get to Peach Springs, Az, which is part of the Hualapai Indian Reservation.  It took us 1 1/2 hours to get to Peach Springs. The Hualapai have really been smart and created a lot to make money off the part of the Canyon that is in their reservation. The lodge was beautiful, there was a restaurant attached. Like I said, they have been very smart. Our instructions were to be at the lodge by 7 AM for check-in.  We made sure we were there on time and the lady at the desk told us we could go to get breakfast in the café(only restaurant in town) if we wanted until we boarded the bus to the Colorado River at 8 AM. Chris and I ate before getting there so we browsed the gift shop and also realized we had not packed the way we should have for this trip. The strange thing was, we packed according to the list the company gave us. We really only needed sunscreen and a water bottle and could have worn shorts and a t-shirt rather than long-sleeve ts and pants per instructions! We emptied our backpacks and condensed what we needed so we ended up with one 1/2 full backpack-at least we were over prepared!

The bus arrived a little after 8 AM and we boarded the school bus to head down into the canyon. The bus driver was nice and gave us a lot of instruction and tips for the rafting trip. This was unlike any bus ride Chris and I have ever been on. We were flying down this primitive dirt road and could barely hold a conversation because of all the bumps. We got air over a few and we had to cross a few low streams on our way down. Despite the bumps, the drive was beautiful and the bus driver had clearly taken this road many times by the way she navigated each turn. It took 45 minutes on this dirt road to get to the start of the rafting trip. We stayed in the reservation the whole time. Our guides were part of the Hualapai tribe and all between probably 22-40 years old. There were 5 boats that went out that day, each carrying 8 people. The Colorado looked more like chocolate milk because of the monsoon season happening right now. Chris and I enjoyed watching the guides because they truly enjoyed their jobs, but then again, who wouldn’t love rafting on the Colorado River all day? We went through several sets of rapids in the beginning. We were sitting with three on each side and two in the center and the guide was behind us steering the boat. Within the first five miles, we made our first stop. The boats unloaded and we followed everyone up to a waterfall. We got to climb up to the falls and into the little cove where the water was coming from. There was a photographer on another boat and he ran up to the falls first to take everyone’s picture in front of it. We got back on the boats after about a half hour and went through some bigger rapids. Our guide, George, would tell us the number of the rapid and name before we entered it.  The second half of the rapids were all 5-6 on a scale of 1-10. This was an awesome experience but unlike anything I’ve ever been through. George would give us the name and number and then you’d hear the motor rev and we would speed into the rapid and hit the water the right way so we’d end up with a wall of water splashing our faces. You had to keep your eyes closed through the rapids because grit would get in them since the river was all muddy. We had to hold on tight but had a wonderful time. Some of the rapids would take you up and you couldn’t see over the front of the boat before diving down into the water. At one point, our boat was filled with water up to our knees. Luckily, George knew what he was doing. After clearing the last set of rapids, we stopped for lunch. The beach was beautiful and we found a nice rock to sit on and eat our sandwiches the company packed for us.

After about a half hour, we got back on the boat and headed down the calmer part of the river. We could take our life jackets off at this time and Chris and I saw with our legs over the edge of the boat. We got some of the spray but there were no more waves. Bighorn goats traveled up and down the cliffs on the mountainside. We saw a grandpa goat who had huge horns and we saw several babies. It’s amazing how these goats find the tiniest ledges to grab onto with their hoofs as they climb down the cliff for a drink out of the Colorado then back up the cliffs. We stopped around 3 at our destination and George let us out of the boat and onto the dock. Shortly after our arrival on land, a helicopter picked us up and flew us a mile out of the Grand Canyon. My stomach dropped a couple times as it felt like we lost a few feet going over the cliffs. We landed and a van drove us about 1/8 mile to a gift shop/rest area before boarding the coach bus to take us two hours back to our car at the lodge. We did ride 30 miles down the river and there was no direct route back on land. The Hualapai owned the shops here and we even bought two of the pictures the photographer took of us-they were pretty cool looking! The famous Skywalk is also on Hualapai property and they also offer helicopter tours of the canyon. The trip was worth every penny-it was an incredible view from the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Most people napped on the drive back to the lodge-we did at least. Since it was almost 7 PM(long day), we ate dinner across from Road Kill Café where we ate last night. This was called Westside Lilo’s where they serve German and American food. The dinner was delicious and the décor was a lot of fun to look at, too. We drove back through Seligman. We learned that Seligman(where Road Kill Café and Lilo’s is) was the inspiration for Radiator Springs in Cars. There were even a few painted cars to look like vehicles from Cars.

We were exhausted from a long day on the Colorado, so we did not stay up much later!