Williams, Az

19th–21st Apr  Williams and Grand Canyon

On the Friday we travelled back along the I-40 to Williams.  We found a campsite just on the edge of town and in the afternoon visited the shops.  The town of Williams is on Route 66 so it had a lot of memorabilia from that era as well as Indian crafts and touristy paraphernalia.

Saturday we did a recce to the Grand Canyon in readiness for our trip on Monday.  As we drove towards the National Park we were amazed at how the area outside the park has developed since our last visit in 2001.  All sorts of hotels, shops and attractions have sprung up.

The Grand Canyon was still as amazing as before and we strolled along the rim admiring the views.

Sunday we take the RV up to Tusayan village and dry camp in the Kaibab Forest for the one night ready for the drive up to the National Park at 4.30am Monday morning (Tusayan used to be just one bar/restaurant, it is now a thriving town).

We have booked a Rafting trip down the Low Half of the Colorado River along the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  The Canyon has 227 miles of river, of which we will be rafting down 135 miles of it – including 19 rapids.  The rapids in the Grand Canyon are classed 1-10 rather than the usual 1-6.  The river flows at around 4mph and the boats are motorised holding up to 15 passengers, plus kit. 

We meet our guide at 5.00am on Monday morning at the Bright Angel Lodge along with 6 other travellers.  We then walk down to the bottom of the Canyon to the boat launch – a downhill trip of nearly 10 miles.  We will have back packs for water and some food but most of our kit will travel down by mule that morning to meet the boat just before lunch.  The boat left the eastern end of the Grand Canyon 4 days earlier with passengers, and we will join them for the remainder of the trip. 

We will spend the next 4 nights camping on the river’s edge.  The Outfitters provide all the camping kit and food etc – we just bring our clothes, especially our waterproofs. 

Apart from floating down the river, and running the rapids, we will get the opportunity for hikes into other parts of the canyon.  On the fifth day (Friday) we will be helicoptered out from the river to Bar Ten Ranch and then a small plane back to the Grand Canyon. …………….

From Sunday evening we will be out of contact until the following Friday evening.