Tom had lined up a rafting trip that had a reported arrival time of 10:15AM Arizona time, and an hour-plus drive.  We got up early, ate breakfast, and departed at 8:15AM so we would have time to check out views along the way.

We were early by the time we were close to Page, AZ where the tour started, so we stopped at the Big Waters Visitors Center to learn about the millions of years that the land changed, the dinosaurs that lived there, and that kinda stuff.  We spent maybe 30 minutes there before we had killed enough time to not arrive too soon at the Wilderness River Adventures office.

The entire experience was nice, but on a scale of 1-10 of adventure this was kinda a 0.  They had a very nice office where they asked you to show up 45 minutes before the bus left, but gave a quick 5 minute talk 10 minutes before departure that was the same stuff you could and should have read on their website.

Then we took an hour long ride in a very nice Volvo bus to Lees Ferry in Glen Canyon Recreational Area.  Since this is the only place you can get in the river, we got in our “raft” and motored 10 miles upstream, then came back, then got in the bus for another hour long ride back to Page.

Underway, the scenery was quite a different take on the usual vast expanses of the West, and quite intimidating. You felt trapped between shear 1,200 feet cliffs. But it made for great photos.

The raft was basically a RIB (rigid inflatable boat) with an aluminum center section and a 150HP Honda outboard.  It could take 32 people – our group was only 12 – all seniors.  There were cushions on the pontoons and in the center sections, but no back support.  We noticed lots of standard pontoon boats zooming by that saw the same views with much more comfortable seats.

Tom made it the whole 1.5 mile round trip and took a picture – worth the $10 parking fee, and the most expensive photo of the trip – of the same overlook we could see from our raft below.  Scott went about 1/3 of the way and decided his knees hurt more than his curiosity, so he sat and read more of his book while waiting for Tom.

The scenery was spectacular, but not too varied.  At the turnaround point we saw some 2-3000 year old Pictographs, and some longhorn sheep.  When we got back to Page, Tom wanted to go to the Horseshoe Bend Overlook – also in the National Recreation Area.  The city of Page, however, owns the parking lot and extorts $10 to park.  They must have very, very good marketing, as the place was mobbed – with probably more than half the visitors from outside the US.

We then went to one more overlook (this one swarmed by a bus of Chinese tourists) before heading back home.  Since we were going back through Kanab, we thought we would hit Keith the guide’s second recommendation “Escobar’s”, and were puzzled when Google Maps said it might be closed on a Saturday night.  A check of their website confirmed they were closed on Tuesdays and Saturdays.  So we picked an alternate restaurant, which had a 45 minute wait.  So we went back to the campsite to eat leftovers and blog.