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Arizona

Exploring & Rafting the Western Grand Canyon With Your Grandchild

Program No. 2519RJ
Explore the Western Grand Canyon with your grandchild as you whitewater raft the Colorado River, learn about the life of a cowboy!

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Prefer to enroll or inquire by phone? 800-454-5768
Age 9 - 13
ROOMING OPTION PRICING
The figures below indicate the rooming options available.
DATES
Jun 3 - Jun 8, 2024
Per Adult
1,949
Per Child
1,549
Select
Jun 3 - Jun 8, 2024
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
2,199
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
Select Date
Jun 16 - Jun 21, 2024
Per Adult
1,949
Per Child
1,549
Select
Jun 16 - Jun 21, 2024
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
2,199
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
Select Date
Jul 7 - Jul 12, 2024
Per Adult
1,949
Per Child
1,549
Select
Itinerary Note

This date begins in Flagstaff.

Jul 7 - Jul 12, 2024
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
2,199
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
Select Date
Itinerary Note

This date begins in Flagstaff.

Jul 21 - Jul 26, 2024
Per Adult
1,949
Per Child
1,549
Select
Itinerary Note

This Date begins in Flagstaff.

Jul 21 - Jul 26, 2024
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
2,199
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
Select Date
Itinerary Note

This Date begins in Flagstaff.

Jul 28 - Aug 2, 2024
Per Adult
1,949
Per Child
1,549
Select
Itinerary Note

This date begins in Flagstaff.

Jul 28 - Aug 2, 2024
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
1,949
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
2,199
/ Adult
1,549
/ Child
Select Date
Itinerary Note

This date begins in Flagstaff.

At a Glance

Share with your grandchild the thrill of whitewater rafting on the Colorado River in the depths of the Grand Canyon. With experienced river runners, navigate exhilarating whitewater rapids. Take part in outdoor field trips on the water, on the ground at the rim as you learn about the geology, natural history and native peoples of the Grand Canyon. Round out a rousing week with s'mores and stories by the campfire!
Activity Level
Outdoor: No Sweat
Walking up to one mile on varied terrain, sometimes in hot conditions. Getting in/out of rafts. Elevations up to 5,500 feet.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Raft 37 wild and scenic miles of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
  • Learn about the Grand Canyon’s Geology while taking in the spectacular vistas of the Canyon’s South Rim.
  • Drive the only road to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and picnic and play on a Colorado River beach.

General Notes

Program is for grandchildren 9-12 or 11-13, depending on the date. Children must be 9 years old for rafting/helicopter rides. For a comparable family adventure for all generations, check out program #9878!
Featured Expert
All Experts
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Carrie Calisay Cannon
Carrie Calisay Cannon is a member of the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma and also is of Oglala Lakota descent. She has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and an M.S. in Resource Management. She is currently employed as an Ethnobotanist for the Hualapai Department of Cultural Resources. She administers a number of department projects and programs which promote the intergenerational teaching of Hualapai ethnobotanical knowledge. She works towards ensuring tribal ethnobotanical knowledge persists as a living practice and tradition.

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

Profile Image of Carrie Calisay Cannon
Carrie Calisay Cannon View biography
Carrie Calisay Cannon is a member of the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma and also is of Oglala Lakota descent. She has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology and an M.S. in Resource Management. She is currently employed as an Ethnobotanist for the Hualapai Department of Cultural Resources. She administers a number of department projects and programs which promote the intergenerational teaching of Hualapai ethnobotanical knowledge. She works towards ensuring tribal ethnobotanical knowledge persists as a living practice and tradition.
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.
Naturalist's Guide to Canyon Country
by Williams, David B. & Gloria Brown
Comprehensive and beautifully illustrated trailside reference to plants, animals, and geology of an area that includes nine national parks and monuments. 192 pp.
An Introduction to Grand Canyon Prehistory
by Coder, Christopher M.
People have inhabited Grand Canyon for the past twelve thousand years. Evidence of their lives exists throughout the canyon; but it is up to their ancestors and archaeologists to interpret those remains for us. This book provides a popular look at the architecture, art, and tools of prehistoric Puebloan peoples, as well as information about modern-day Native American tribes. With illustrations and color photographs.
Half Broke Horses
by Walls, Jeannette
Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, wrote this true life novel which unfolds across Northern Arizona from the 1920s to the 1960s. Its heroine, Lily Casey Smith, (Ms. Wall's grandmother) battled the elements, prejudices, economic conditions and politics of remote frontier Arizona. Many of the locations described - Peach Springs, Seligman, Flagstaff, the Navajo Reservation, the Arizona Strip - are sites visited by NAU Road Scholar programs. Readers of this selection will feel the sense of heritage from this tale of life in our distant corner of America. Note: may not be appropriate for young readers.
Field Guide to the Grand Canyon
by Whitney, Stephen R
This book describes and illustrates the area's plants and animals, and offers fascinating in-depth information on the natural history and geology of this dramatic region. 272pp
An Introduction to Grand Canyon Ecology
by Houk, Rose
56pp
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
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.
Ancient Peoples of the American Southwest
by Steve Plog
The American Southwest is home to some of the most remarkable monuments of America's prehistoric past, such as Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde. Stephen Plog, who has spent decades working in the region, provides the most readable and up-to-date account of the predecessors of the modern Hopi and Pueblo Indian cultures in this well-received account. Chaco Canyon became the center of a thriving Anasazi cultural tradition. It was the hub of a trading network extending over hundreds of miles, whose arteries were a series of extraordinary roads that are still being discovered and mapped. Interweaving the latest archaeological evidence with early first-person accounts, Professor Plog explains the rise and mysterious fall of Southwestern cultures. 224pp.





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