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Arizona

Rafting Grand Canyon’s Granite Gorge

Program No. 21044RJ

Few adventures in life can match the thrill of rafting the Colorado River. Come experience this journey as you join local experts to raft through the Grand Canyon and learn a whole lot!

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7 days

6 nights

17 meals

6B 5L 6D

Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

Flagstaff, AZ

Grand Canyon National Park South Rim

Flagstaff, AZ

Rafting Lower Granite Gorge Canyon

Grand Canyon, AZ

Rafting & Rapids

Grand Canyon, AZ

Following the Rhythm of the River, Halfway Point

Grand Canyon, AZ

Explore the Grand Canyon, Return to Flagstaff

Flagstaff, AZ

Program Concludes, Independent departures

Flagstaff, AZ

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At a Glance

Rafting the Colorado River through Grand Canyon's Granite Gorge is the best way to access spectacular rapids and remote beaches. Experience the canyon on a hike-and-raft expedition in a little-seen part of western Grand Canyon uncovering a geologic past stretching back almost 2 billion years! Local experts provide knowledge and leadership on river and trail and prepare meals as you relax on spectacular riverside campsites.

Activity Level

Outdoor: Spirited

Hiking 2-5 miles. Rafting three days. Sleeping in tents on a pad with sleeping bag. Daytime summer temperatures in the inner canyon can exceed 100 F. Elevations up to 7,000 feet.

Micro Group

These adventures feature our smallest group size, with 12 participants or fewer.

Best of all, you’ll…

Camp for three days in the Grand Canyon and raft the Granite Gorge through thrilling whitewater rapids.
Study the geologic and natural history of the Grand Canyon with a geologist/naturalist.
Spend a day hiking in Grand Canyon National Park for a comprehensive view of this incomparable destination.

General Notes

This is a Micro Group program, with 12 or fewer participants. River permits cannot be acquired until five months prior to program start date. Check with Road Scholar before purchasing plane tickets as program dates may change. Due to the nature of this program, listening devices are not available.

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Christopher Eaves

Christopher Eaves has called the Southwest home for the past two decades, exploring the wild lands and rivers of the region. After teaching middle school math and science for 15 years, he joined Road Scholar to continue his ongoing passion for promoting learning. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Western University of Colorado and a master’s in Education from Northern Arizona University. Chris's hobbies include mountain biking, hiking, and traveling the globe with his spouse and children.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Christopher Eaves View biography

Suggested Reading List (11 books)

Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop

You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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Rafting Grand Canyon’s Granite Gorge

Program Number: 21044

Living at the Edge: Explorers, Exploiters, and Settlers of the Grand Canyon Region

by Anderson, Michael F

A comprehensive look at the pioneer history of the Grand Canyon Region, from its earliest residents to the creation of the national park at the end of the pioneer era (circa 1920). Included are close to two hundred historic photographs, many never published before, and 12 custom maps of the region. 184pp

Woman of the River: Georgie White Clark, White-Water Pioneer

by Richard E. Westwood

Georgie White Clark-adventurer, raconteur, eccentric--first came to know the canyons of the Colorado River by swimming portions of them with a single companion. She subsequently hiked and rafted portions of the canyons, increasingly sharing her love of the Colorado River with friends and acquaintances. At first establishing a part-time guide service as a way to support her own river trips, she went on to become perhaps the canyons' best-known river guide, introducing their rapids to many others-on the river, via her large-capacity rubber rafts, and across the nation, via magazine articles and movies. Georgie Clark saw the river and her sport change with the building of Glen Canyon Dam, enormous increases in the popularity of river running, and increased National Park Service regulation of rafting and river guides. Adjusting, though not always easily, to the changes, she helped transform an elite adventure sport into a major tourist activity.

The Man Who Walked Through Time: The Story of the First Trip Afoot Through the Grand Canyon

by Fletcher, Colin

The remarkable classic of nature writing by the first man ever to have walked the entire length of the Grand Canyon. 256pp

Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis

by Glennon, Robert

In the middle of the Mojave Desert, Las Vegas casinos use billions of gallons of water for fountains, pirate lagoons, wave machines, and indoor canals. Meanwhile, the town of Orme, Tennessee, must truck in water from Alabama because it has literally run out. Robert Glennon captures the irony—and tragedy—of America’s water crisis in a book that is both frightening and wickedly comical. Unquenchable reveals the heady extravagances and everyday inefficiencies that are sucking the nation dry.

The Emerald Mile

by Kevin Fedarko

In the spring of 1983, massive flooding along the length of the Colorado River confronted a team of engineers at the Glen Canyon Dam with an unprecedented emergency that may have resulted in the most catastrophic dam failure in history. In the midst of this crisis, the decision to launch a small wooden dory named “The Emerald Mile” at the head of the Grand Canyon, just fifteen miles downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam, seemed not just odd, but downright suicidal. The Emerald Mile, at one time slated to be destroyed, was rescued and brought back to life by Kenton Grua, the man at the oars, who intended to use this flood as a kind of hydraulic sling-shot. The goal was to nail the all-time record for the fastest boat ever propelled—by oar, by motor, or by the grace of God himself—down the entire length of the Colorado River from Lee’s Ferry to Lake Mead. Did he survive? Just barely. Now, this remarkable, epic feat unfolds here, in The Emerald Mile.

Sunk Without a Sound

by Brad Dimock

Grand Canyon, this adventure / mystery / biography details the true story of Glen and Bessie Hyde, who vanished on their 1928 honeymoon river trip through Grand Canyon. When they did not appear at journey's end, Glen's father launched an exhaustive search of Grand Canyon. Although the boat was soon found upright and fully loaded, no trace of the honeymooners was ever found. They had vanished from the face of the earth. Or had they? In the years since, four people appearing to be either Glen or Bessie have emerged, each with a tale implying murder and mayhem. Author and boatman Brad Dimock has unearthed the true story of the Hydes, followed each tale to its source, and gone so far as to retrace the Hydes' fateful voyage in a replica of their archaic scow.

Carving Grand Canyon: Evidence, Theories, and Mystery

by Ranney, Wayne

Ranney explains how rivers in general can physically carve canyons, looks chronologically at the numerous theories that have been presented by successive generations of geologists regarding the Grand Canyon's formation, and describes a plausible sequence of geologic events that could create such a landscape. Numerous color photographs, detailed illustrations, and maps are provided. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR 160pp; 2nd edition 2012.

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West

by Stegner, Wallace

Here Wallace Stegner, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, gives us a thrilling account of Powell's struggle against western geography and Washington politics. We witness the successes and frustrations of Powell's distinguished career, and appreciate his unparalleled understanding of the West. "Stegner's most exciting work." (San Francisco Chronicle) 496pp

I Am the Grand Canyon: The Story of the Havasupai People

by Hirst, Stephen

I Am the Grand Canyon is the story of the Havasupai people. From their origins among the first group of Indians to arrive in North America some 20,000 years ago to their epic struggle to regain traditional lands taken from them in the nineteenth century, the Havasupai have a long and colorful history. The story of this tiny tribe once confined to a too small reservation depicts a people with deep cultural ties to the land, both on their former reservation below the rim of the Grand Canyon and on the surrounding plateaus. 276pp

The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons

by Powell, John Wesley

Full text of Powell's 1,000-mile expedition down the fabled Colorado in 1869. Superb account of terrain, geology, vegetation, Indians, famine, mutiny, treacherous rapids, mighty canyons. 240 illustrations. 432pp

Writing Down the River: Into the Heart of the Grand Canyon

by Collection of Authors

Copious, dramatic color photographs and poetic quotations illustrate these essays describing the whitewater rafting experiences of 15 prominent female writers sent down the Colorado River during the summer of 1997.

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Rafting Grand Canyon’s Granite Gorge

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At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

General Notes

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