Connor Family Travels: Rafting on the Colorado River

We're headed back to Arizona today to take a smooth water raft trip down the Colorado River through Glen Canyon. This is a day we've been very excited about. We left our hotel in Kanab, UT to get to Colorado River Discovery in Page, AZ by 9:30AM for our 10AM departure. Thanks to another time change, we were able to leave an hour later and still make the 1.5 hour drive in plenty of time.

A note about time in this area, especially in the summer. It is confusing. We're thankful that our phones are pretty good about keeping track of what time it is where we are because it is crazy. When we left Las Vegas yesterday, we were in the Pacific time zone. We traveled through the northwest corner of Arizona, which is in a different time zone, but the time didn't change because Arizona doesn't observe daylight savings time. Really, Arizona? So then we drove into Utah, which is the same time zone as Arizona, but they do observe daylight savings time so they were an hour different. Coming back into Arizona this morning, we once again turned back time, except if we were to enter the Navajo nation near Page. They are in Arizona but they do observe daylight savings time. I guess if you live in this area, you've always got a good excuse for being late.

We drove through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on our way to Page. It was another beautiful, scenic drive.

Our rafting trip will take place on the Colorado River in Glen Canyon, north of the Grand Canyon.

We arrived plenty early and applied our sunscreen and filled our water bottles. We would be traveling about 5 minutes by bus to the Colorado River at the base of the Glen Canyon Dam that creates Lake Powell on the other side. This was no ordinary 5 minute bus drive, though. We traveled in a giant bus through a tiny tunnel 2 miles long in the side of the canyon. It was completely black inside the tunnel, except for the adits (windows) in the side. I was glad not to be the one driving. The tunnel and base of the dam is a Homeland Security site and we all had to be searched for weapons before getting on our bus. When we exited the bus, we had to walk straight to the other side of the chain link fence before we could stop to look or take pictures. No dawdling allowed in a Homeland Security site. Then we were handed hard hats to wear on the ramp down to the river. The bridge was above us and even a pebble falling from that height could do some damage to your noggin.

View of an adit from the river (top center)

Glen Canyon Dam

They directed us to our raft and all the inside seats were full so we sat on the pontoon next to the water. I personally think this was the best spot.

Our tour guide was very good. He pointed out lots of interesting things and geology of the canyon.

The black streaks on the side of the canyon are called desert varnish.

The rafting so was so fun. It was a hot, sunny day but the water is a constant 47 degrees. Sometimes a cool breeze would blow over the water and it felt great. It was beautiful everywhere and we had a great time floating down the river.

I was surprised to see that our kids were the only young kids on our raft today. Once again, they were extremely well behaved. No fighting, horseplay, or noisy behavior. I'm so proud of these kids!

The dark line is from waterfalls that form here when it rains.

The water was crystal clear because it was flowing through the dam. Further down the Colorado and in the Grand Canyon, the water is not this clear because of tributaries emptying into the river and carrying silt. We could see trout swimming in the river.

When the boat sped up, water would flow between the pontoons and over our feet. We didn't realize this and had put all our stuff there. Luckily it was waterproof and we quickly moved it to the upper ledge. It felt great on a hot day to have the water come through, but it quickly numbed your feet if you left them there. Water shoes were a good call.

We stopped at Petroglyph beach for restrooms (well, compost toilets), a short hike, and swimming.

Our guide led to a place where we could see petroglyphs on the canyon walls.

I think he said these are pictures of big horn sheep.

I liked this one of a father and child. They would only draw legs when they drew a child because they were not a full grown person yet. There is also a modern petroglyph carved above the people. The artist, Trent, was found, convicted of a felony, and fined $10,000. He is also banned from all National Parks for life. Don't be a Trent, people.

We went back to the beach and Rodney went in the water to cool off. It was a hot day and 47 degree water will cool you down quick. It looks like it was pretty cold!

Caleb started to go in, but didn't get very far. Rodney suggested they go in together. They started off good...

But just as Rodney was diving under, Caleb quickly changed his mind.

I think he was happy with his choice. Tricked ya, Dad!

This whole scene provided some great entertainment for the crowd on the beach.

Morgan went in up to her waist and later up to her neck.

When we got back on the raft, the guide pulled a bag out of the water that had been tied onto the boat during our trip. It was full of ice cold cans of lemonade, cooled by the river. I don't know if I was just really thirsty, but it was really good lemonade!

This is just a natural formation that kind of looks like an antelope. The big oval is the body and the 2 curved lines are the horns.

This is Horseshoe Bend. I have seen some amazing pictures of this part of the river taken from the canyon rim. It is hard to grasp from river level, but it was still beautiful.

We may have been part of someone's amazing Horseshoe Bend picture. Those teeny tiny dots on the right at the top of the canyon are people. It is a really deep canyon!

Close up of the crazy people at the top. There are no railings up there.

For another perspective of the size of the canyon, notice the green bush about 1/3 of the way down in the center? That's a full grown cottonwood tree. This picture is zoomed in on the tree.

This is the same tree, but at full scale. Again about 1/3 of the way down and just right of center.

This is called Finger Rock.

This formation looks like praying hands.

You can see another raft in this picture that is just like the one we were in.

Our rafting trip lasted 4 hours and we rafted the entire the length of Glen Canyon, from Glen Canyon Dam to Lee's Ferry. Beyond Glen Canyon is Marble Canyon and beyond that is the Grand Canyon. To get back to our car, we boarded the same bus that took us through the tunnel. This is a view from a bridge crossing over the Colorado River in Marble Canyon.

Caleb was worn out. He slept on the bus all the way back.

Next stop was the hotel for swimming. The Hilton brand hotel in this area will not be open until late summer so we will be at Best Western hotels the next two nights. We had a nice view out of our window of Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam.