As the canyon stirs to life each morning, the guides announce coffee is ready.

Pack up your sleep kit and clothing dry bag; organize your day gear and head towards the kitchen area and the boats for a hearty and fresh breakfast.

After breakfast, we’ll finish putting camp away, reloading the boats with everyone’s help and then push off for a fun-filled day of hiking and rafting.

Rafting includes floating through serene stretches of flat water as well as exciting whitewater stretches. Time on the rafts is interspersed with stops for lunch, side canyon hikes, sites, interpretive talks, and bathroom breaks. Generally, you will be in the boats about half of each day.

You may hike once a day or do up to three shorter hikes in a day. You may spend all day hiking one day and make up river miles another day. Some hikes begin at camp, others involve boating first to reach the hiking locale. At each stop, we’ll disembark as a group, access shoe storage bags for footwear changes, refill water bottles, and grab daypacks.

Your guides will provide interpretive information about the Canyon’s natural and cultural features throughout each day – while hiking or at an attraction site, while in camp, and while on the boat as you pass significant features.

At the end of each day, arrive at another pristine campsite, unload the rafts and help set up our community spaces.

Enjoy the views and natural sounds from your camping area or as part of the group in the main camp area.

Appetizers, dinner and desert are followed by a nightly talk by your Trip Leader covering the next day’s logistics. Camp out under the stars; fall asleep listening to the sounds of the river.

Inherent Risks in Adventuring

Grand Canyon trip with Canyoneers is a wilderness experience involving rafting, hiking, and camping. We will take you away from the noises and pressures of today’s world, but that also means that we will be leaving behind its amenities and comforts. You will be rafting on extremely cold water (45°-52° F). You may experience both extreme heat (110°-120° F) and extreme cold (rafting on a cloudy day) on your trip. Wind and sand can produce uncomfortable camping conditions at times. The dry desert air requires consumption of large amounts of water (6-8 quarts per day) to stave off dehydration along with adequate food intake to guard against hyponatremia.

20,000+ people participate on commercial Grand Canyon trips annually. Serious accidents are rare. However, Grand Canyon trips include serious risks that, given the unique character of the adventure, cannot be eliminated. The following are some but not all of the risks that are inherent to the environment and activities. A more descriptive and comprehensive list of inherent risks is provided in our Acknowledgement of Risk Form.

• Extreme weather events: Flash floods, rock falls, high wind gusts, etc. can result in unpredictable, dynamic, and potentially life threatening situations during outdoor adventures while camping, hiking, and rafting.
• Slips and falls: Campsites and stops along the river can be characterized by uneven terrain. Many hikes include exposure, steep ascents/descents and/or rough terrain; personal conditioning and comfort levels should dictate your participation choices. Being attentive and careful while camping, hiking and rafting in a river environment and being aware of your personal capabilities are important factors in reducing personal risk.
• Prolonged exposure to the elements: Exposure to extreme heat and the desert sun can result in serious medical conditions including heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
• Exposure to bacteria, viruses, and/or allergens: You may be exposed to bacteria, viruses and/or allergens from food, water, air, or as a result of wildlife encounters including snakes, bats (rabies), mice (hantavirus) and other people. This includes exposure to all viruses and bacteria transmitted by humans, including Covid-19.
• Extended immersion in frigid water: Boat flips or unintentional entry into the water from a boat or shore can result in rare situations in which rescue is delayed or not possible and swimming to a boat/to shore or pushing out from under a boat is required to avoid hypothermia or drowning. Jarring and jostling through rapids may result in collision with objects in the boats or in the river in the event of being thrown from the boat or the boat capsizes. Whitewater navigation is inherently subject to dynamic natural forces (often difficult to predict and impossible to control) and human error; guides are not immune to mistake, lapse or error.
• Medical facilities and medical care can be hours or even days away in the case of emergency or need for evacuation. Medical conditions or events that in the front country may not be life threatening can become life threatening due to the time it may take to get to advanced medical care from the back country of Grand Canyon.

We recommend consulting with your physician before registering for a trip and giving careful consideration to information provided about the canyon’s environment, the trip activities, and your abilities.

Canyoneers does not screen prospective river guests based on provided medical information. We can assist you in determining if a canyon trip is right for you by describing the parameters of a wilderness rafting trip and providing a List of Essential Abilities.

Any medical condition may be cause for your concern and should be carefully evaluated by you prior to registering for a Grand Canyon trip because canyon trips are strenuous and the environment is extreme and remote. If you have heart disease, high blood pressure, or asthma, your participation may put your health at serious risk due to the increased level of exertion and the extreme environmental conditions. This risk is amplified if you are hiking into or out of the canyon on the Bright Angel Trail.

Canyoneers is committed to the quality of each guest’s experience, providing appropriate equipment, qualified and skilled guides, safety standards and protocols.