10 Things we learned on our Hatch Grand Canyon river rafting trip!

7 days on the Colorado in the Grand Canyon river rafting changed our lives in all the best ways!

First, how did the Grand Canyon river rafting trip come to be…..

Over a year in advance, we planned our Grand Canyon river rafting trip for 7 days. My hubby and I were just going alone, and we figured we would enjoy meeting new friends. We had friends tell us that Hatch River Expeditions was the best company to use (they were FANTASTIC) so we did our research and realized we would need to make reservations WAY in advance.

We made ours a year in advance for May of 2023. During the year before we had fun reading about where we would be going, getting our gear together and planning our trip to Lee’s Ferry where we started the adventure. There were many things we were a little excited or even a little concerned about as we planned so research was necessary. At the conclusion of the trip, I realized how much of my worry was unnecessary. We learned a lot on the river, but these were the 10 things we wanted to share.

Learn more about Hatch. They did not sponsor me or this blog in any way but maybe they should 🙂

Learn more abut the actual details of the trip.

The top 10 list

Showering and Shaving is overrated

As we were researching our Grand Canyon River Rafting trip, we were concerned about being stinky all week. It’s hot in the canyon this time of year. How would we get clean? We were told we could wash up in the river if we brought environmentally safe soap. So, I was sure that would be the trick. Guess what? The river is cold in May. Like, REALLY cold. We took one river bath all week and rinsed our hair in a couple waterfalls.

I had heard that bringing wipes along would be a good substitute and it was. I always take Combat Wipes with me on hikes and had some on this trip. They did the trick. Each night I cleaned up with the wipes and that was better than bathing in the river. Yep, I’m a weenie.

The other thing I was sure I would need to do was shave my legs and underarms. After a day of doing that, I gave that up too. What was I thinking? We were out in nature, and we needed to live accordingly. The best part? It was way easier than I thought it would be. So, if you are taking a river trip anytime soon, pack lighter and leave the soap, shampoo, and razors behind. You will thank me.

Peeing in the river is not as hard as you think

WARNING- Potty talk ahead. When we were reading up on this adventure my biggest concern by far was peeing in the river. You cannot pee in the canyon because it gets very little rain and there are very few beaches. The bottom line is that if everyone pees in the canyon it stinks. So, no peeing in the canyon. This is much more stressful for women than men.

The first day or two you are self-conscious and trying to figure out how to accomplish this without getting all wet and having some privacy. By day 3 you literally walked into the river and peed. Right there in front of the world. You just need to get it done. Everyone is in the same boat (pun intended) so you just do what you need to do.

While on the raft itself if you need to go you just headed to the back of the raft where there was an area with a step and a rope. You squatted on the step and held on to the rope while motoring down the river. It’s quite the adventure. Not as hard as you think.

A quick public service announcement for the women out there. If you walk into the river to go, make sure you don’t go THROUGH your shorts or bathing suit. According to our river guides it will eventually stink which is not nice for the people around you on the raft AND it can contribute to UTI’s. Pull the shorts or suit to the side so you don’t get stinky or worse.

Here is a tip that all the women in the group called me a genius for. I was worried about needing to go at night and having to make my way down to the river in the dark. When you get to your beach camp area each day you find your own secluded place to camp so you aren’t always near the beach.

Call me crazy but I brought along a large, plastic McDonalds soda cup with lid in my bag. If I needed to go at night I just went right there by our camp in my cup. It saved me a lot of stress and worry. In the morning I would head down to the river to dispose of it, rinse and tuck it back away wrapped in my towel in my bag. You could use any type of container with a lid but I highly recommend bringing something. At the beginning I was embarrassed but once word got around, I was looked at as genius. Ha!

And for those wondering, there will be more coming about the other bathroom business.

Common struggles make fast friends

When you all start with the same excitement and worry you become friends fast. We set out with 2 rafts of around 15 people each. We stayed on the same raft all week, so we quickly got to know everyone. When you are loading and unloading, setting up camp and kitchen, getting used to doing things you don’t normally do and so much more, you are glad to have others alongside you going through the same things and supporting you.

By the end of the week, we knew everyone WELL and a few people REALLY well. We quickly bonded with two couples, Matt and Brittany and LeeAnn and Kelly and would set up our camps and chairs all together each night. We looked out for each other, complained to each other and even created a boat flag together that the rest of the raft rallied around. By the end of the trip, we were making plans to meet up to visit next year. River rafting friends are the BEST!

There is a LOT of sand in the canyon

I knew from my researching my Grand Canyon river rafting trip that we would be camping on little beach areas in the canyon. BUT I had no idea it would really be like actual, beach. Sand is everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, sand can be nice to walk on and fairly soft to put your tent on, but it gets everywhere and when you are in the canyon for a week you start to accumulate a lot of sand. In your shoes, pants, bags, food, drink and any other parts and things you can think of. By the end of the trip, you just embrace it. It just took almost the whole week.

Sleeping under the stars is AMAZING!

So, we love to hike and explore but we aren’t really campers. In all my research I was also a bit worried about this tent thing. But, on the first day when we set up the cots and felt how warm it still was outside our little group of new friends decided that we might not want to actually sleep in our tents.

Why not try this sleeping under the stars? It wasn’t supposed to rain and it was a gorgeous evening. We were exhausted so sleep shouldn’t be an issue. We all lined up our cots in a row and lay under the stars. Like teenagers on a sleepover we told silly jokes and looked for constellations.

Because of the issues I mentioned in number 4 above I was worried about sleeping. But it wasn’t an issue. It was just cool enough to get in the sleeping bag and be cozy. The whole group agreed it was awesome. The next few days we used our tent as a changing area and slept under the stars. Later in the week there were threats of rain and so we set up in the tent. But, sleeping under the stars was the best. Like the first river explorers.

Using the Groover takes some getting used to

Groover was not a word that was in my vocabulary until I signed up for a Hatch Grand Canyon river rafting trip. Think primitive can with a toilet seat on it. Bless the hearts of the river guides who take the groovers on and off the raft and set it up each time we made camp. Not a job anyone would enjoy. Remember before when I mentioned the process for peeing on a river trip? Well, you definitely can’t poop in the sand or in the water so the groover is all you get.

Once the rafts are unloaded at camp the guides set up the groover first. We actually had two of them and they put them at the far ends of each camp. They try and tuck them away so that no one can see you but even still, you are using the facilities right out there in front of God and the world. It’s disconcerting for sure. Honestly, it’s one of the things I worried about the most in the year before the trip.

They set up the groovers, some toilet paper and a bucket. You take the bucket from the end of the path to the groover so that everyone knows it’s in use. If you think you need to pee first, you go in the bucket and do the rest of your business in the groover. All toilet paper goes in the groover. Then you bring the bucket back out, dump the pee in the river and use the hand washing system they have set up.

There is often a line for the groover which makes it even more stressful. I mentioned that peeing in the river was easier than I thought it would be? Using the groover takes a lot more time to get used to. But, I will say that I’ve never had a better view while using a potty!

Food tastes better when you had to unload the whole raft to get to it

Everything you need for an entire week is on your raft. The way they pack these things is amazing. It’s like they do it every week or something. Seriously though, it’s so well done. The food is absolutely amazing for being out in the wild.

Each day at lunch and at dinner you need to form a fire line to unload all the things they need to make the meals for 30+ people. It’s not too much at lunch because it’s just sandwich fixings, chips, cookies etc. But at dinner we unloaded all our camping gear and everything to grill, boil and cook a big meal. It was a good bit of work. Something about that made the meal taste that much better.

The Grand Canyon is full of amazing things that you can only see on a Grand Canyon river rafting trip

I can’t stress this enough. This was the thing that surprised me the most about our raft trip. Of course, I knew the canyon would be amazing and full of surprises. But the number of amazing sights was what blew me away. It seemed your head was always on a swivel trying to take it all in.

Each day there was at least one stop during the rafting day to explore an area. I loved it. We would hike a little which was great because you are sitting for long periods while on the raft and getting out and moving was necessary. I love a wildflower and definitely a cactus flower. We saw a lot of these on several of the day hikes.

The number of waterfalls in the Grand Canyon that flow into the Colorado River is great. Our guides knew all the best places to stop and see them. Some flowed right into the river and we could see from our raft and others we hiked a bit to see.

There are also quite a few slot canyon areas to explore, and we did a bit of that too. It’s so nice to explore in a place that isn’t crowded and see something in such a natural state. One small slot we explored had a sweet birds nest with several eggs in it. It was literally 8 inches above the creek flowing below it. Our rafting guide said that there is one there almost every year.

Probably the coolest thing was saw on this trip, and that’s saying a lot, was the confluence of Havasu Creek and the Colorado River. This was the only other place we had other people around because other white water rafting tours had also stopped here. Havasu Creek is spectacular. The clear blue water contrasting the dark water of the Colorado River is something to see. We hiked up the creek a way and could see fish below in pools, gorgeous waterfalls and streams. Everything about it is gorgeous.

If you were to follow this creek up about 9 miles, you would come to the Havasupi Village and Havasu Falls which is world famous and requires a permit to hike to. After seeing this creek and gorgeous water we put getting a permit to Havasau Falls on our bucket list in the near future.

Without question the things we stopped and saw on our river trip were amazing and such an added bonus to the rapids and whitewater adventures.

All drinks taste better when they have been pulled in a drag bag in the river all day

Our Grand Canyon River rafting trip included all our food and snacks. For drinks they offered water, tea, coffee and lemonade/Gatorade. If you wanted soda or adult beverages, you could order them directly and they were delivered to our launch site. Those drinks were packed onto the raft but each day you could pull out what you wanted and load it into one of 4 dry bags attached to each raft.

The bags hung off the back of the raft and during the day you could head back and pull up the bag to help yourself. It was on the honor system and there were a few days when my Diet Cokes may have gone missing. But most people brought so many drinks that it wasn’t an issue. At the end of the trip the river guides usually are given the rest of the leftover drinks. There were a LOT. People seemed to way overestimate how many drinks they would need.

Teamwork makes the dream work is TRUTH

Hatch River Expeditions did a lot of great stuff and took excellent care of us. But the two river guides and river swamper couldn’t do everything. We knew in advance that there was work to be done on this trip. Each evening when setting up camp and then in the morning when tearing down camp we had a lot of work to do.

How much work depended on the people on your trip. If everyone got involved which they were supposed to do, then the work went fast. If you had a couple people who tried not to work (which did happen), then it took a little longer. Our raft was full of amazing hard workers.

When we pulled on a beach everyone jumped off to unload so we could get to work setting up our camps. When the rafts were being tied up, we were allowed to run and snag a camp site but then we needed to get right back to unload. The process is fine- tuned and smooth and took about 15-20 min. Once you were done you tended to your own spot.

When the unloading started several people opened up the tarps that kept our gear dry all day and started unloading tents, cots, chairs, and pumpkins (our big gear dry bags). After that was all in piles on the beach we started with the coolers, grills, cook gear, and everything needed to make dinner and breakfast. Water had to be fetched from the river to boil for washing dishes and hand washing stations.

In the morning the whole process was repeated in the opposite direction. It went like clockwork, and it made the whole trip so much nicer and easier. When we were released, we grabbed a tent, cot, chair and our pumpkin and went to get our own camp set up while the guides made us an amazing dinner which began soon after our arrival with appetizers. The whole system was really amazing.

Bonus thing I learned

Grand Canyon river rafting guides are amazing and our guide, Josh, was no exception. He was knowledgeable, kind, hard working and funny. We lucked out big time with him taking us down this beautiful Colorado River on our Grand Canyon whitewater rafting adventure.

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Keep on exploring,

Stephanie