floating in Page AZ

[nchulka]

I'm wondering if anyone has ever been floating in Page AZ? If so how was it? The website makes it look wonderful, just wondering if it's worth it and what anyone's experience has been. TIA

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Are you talking about the river floats from Glen Canyon Dam?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Are you talking about the Colorado River Rafting thing?

I've been checking them out as well for a September trip. I was going to book the half day trip.

Are you going before? I'd love to know what you thought of it.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

My DH and DD did it last September for a school trip. The water was like glass and the scenery was gorgeous. Well worth the trip if you ask me.

 

[PrincessInOz]

My DH and DD did it last September for a school trip. The water was like glass and the scenery was gorgeous. Well worth the trip if you ask me.

That's great to know. I think you've confirmed what I'd like to do. Did you take your camera? I've been lurking on your TRs but don't remember seeing this one....

I'd like to do one of the slot canyons as well. DH and I went to Antelope Canyon in 2000. I was looking at the Hummer tour for the Secret Canyon; photographer's version. Have you gone to the Secret Canyon as well?

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Hi Princess,

Actually, it was a 7th grade field trip for my DD's school. They did this float trip, a couple of ruins, Sunset Crater and the Grand Canyon in 48 hours. One of us always has to go on her field trips because of her diabetes and I actually talked my DH into taking this one since I have gone on all the others. Anyway, they had a great time, but I didn't do a trip report. DH wants to take me on it at sometime, maybe I'll do a TR then. Here's a couple of his pictures.

Sorry, I have not gone to the Secret Canyon.

 

[PrincessInOz]

It looks great! Thank you! Lovely pictures. Were they taken with a dSLR or a point and shoot?

You could always DisMeet me.......Sedona, GC or Page.....

 

[disneyfaninaz]

It looks great! Thank you! Lovely pictures. Were they taken with a dSLR or a point and shoot?

You could always DisMeet me.......Sedona, GC or Page.....

Thanks! I'll tell him you said so. These were taken with a Panasonic point & shoot.

Maybe . ...

 

[nchulka]

Thank you all for the info and pix, it looks awesome! I think we will definitely add this to our must do list! We've never been out west, in the Grand Canyon area before so I have no idea what to expect. The website made it look awesome, but I wanted to check with some real people who have btdt! I wanted a scenic float where we would get to experience the canyons, without the rapids (my mom has back issues) and in one day (no time for a week long float).

 

[disneyfaninaz]

You're welcome! Just so you know, the river float from the dam is actually outside the Grand Canyon. Where they let you off at Lee's Ferry is actually the beginning of the Grand Canyon and where all the white water rafting trips down the Colorado River start.
But as you said, there are no rapids on this stretch of the river.

 

[3princesshome]

We did the rafting in Page last year as a family of five. I have three daughters who were ages 13, 11 and 8. I highly recommend it. It was a perfect duration (about 3 hours) and there are no rapids- just calm rafting in a motorized boat - the scenery is beautiful and the kids really enjoyed it. It was August when we went, so we did the early morning one when it wasn't too hot - in fact, down on the water (water is very cold) and in the shadow of the canyon (for at least the first hour) it was actually a little cool and you could have used a sweater, which is ridiculously unbelievable given that the days were about 110 degrees, but it warmed up as the morning progressed.

When I booked on their website, they had the option for a combined trip of river rafting in the morning and the hummer ride to the secret slot canyons in the afternoon so that is what we did. I highly recommend the hummer ride to the slot canyons as well. You get your own private ride in an air conditioned hummer (as opposed to the other company where they ride you out crammed in the back of a pickup truck) and they only take out one hummer at a time and time it so that you have the slot canyon to yourselves for the whole time, which I believe is also different than the other company. The driver of your hummer does a bunch of off-roading tricks and drives up some inclines - and my kids were just thrilled - they loved the ride through the desert and the crazy driving! They provide you a lunch at the rafting place before you head over to the hummer place and it was very good. They did forget to tell us to wear closed shoes for the hummer ride because the sand in the canyon is hot.

One other piece of advice - if you get a chance to before your rafting trip, take the hike out to Horseshoe Bend. It's a small stop just off the highway outside of Page (I got the directions from a thread on TripAdvisor Boards) and it about a 1 mile hike through the desert (we were there in August and all I can say is bring a LOT of water - it doesn't look that far, but in that heat, it was incredibly draining - and the walk back to your car is uphill) but it is SO worth it! You get to view down to the river that you'll be rafting on and it's a beautiful view. Caution though to stay away from the edge! There is no railing and it shocked me how some people went right up to the edge to take photos - the next day when we were passing by it from below in our raft (and in total awe of the ant sized people on the edge where we had just been the day before - it really gives you perspective) our guide was telling us how people have slipped off the edge and fallen (to their deaths obviously) or the fact that the rock can just crumble under your feet.

I highly recommend both the rafting and the Hummer ride - we were on a 3 week road trip through LA, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, San Fran, Monterrey, etc and this was definitely one of our highlights!

 

[nchulka]

We did the rafting in Page last year as a family of five. I have three daughters who were ages 13, 11 and 8. I highly recommend it. It was a perfect duration (about 3 hours) and there are no rapids- just calm rafting in a motorized boat - the scenery is beautiful and the kids really enjoyed it. It was August when we went, so we did the early morning one when it wasn't too hot - in fact, down on the water (water is very cold) and in the shadow of the canyon (for at least the first hour) it was actually a little cool and you could have used a sweater, which is ridiculously unbelievable given that the days were about 110 degrees, but it warmed up as the morning progressed.

When I booked on their website, they had the option for a combined trip of river rafting in the morning and the hummer ride to the secret slot canyons in the afternoon so that is what we did. I highly recommend the hummer ride to the slot canyons as well. You get your own private ride in an air conditioned hummer (as opposed to the other company where they ride you out crammed in the back of a pickup truck) and they only take out one hummer at a time and time it so that you have the slot canyon to yourselves for the whole time, which I believe is also different than the other company. The driver of your hummer does a bunch of off-roading tricks and drives up some inclines - and my kids were just thrilled - they loved the ride through the desert and the crazy driving! They provide you a lunch at the rafting place before you head over to the hummer place and it was very good. They did forget to tell us to wear closed shoes for the hummer ride because the sand in the canyon is hot.

One other piece of advice - if you get a chance to before your rafting trip, take the hike out to Horseshoe Bend. It's a small stop just off the highway outside of Page (I got the directions from a thread on TripAdvisor Boards) and it about a 1 mile hike through the desert (we were there in August and all I can say is bring a LOT of water - it doesn't look that far, but in that heat, it was incredibly draining - and the walk back to your car is uphill) but it is SO worth it! You get to view down to the river that you'll be rafting on and it's a beautiful view. Caution though to stay away from the edge! There is no railing and it shocked me how some people went right up to the edge to take photos - the next day when we were passing by it from below in our raft (and in total awe of the ant sized people on the edge where we had just been the day before - it really gives you perspective) our guide was telling us how people have slipped off the edge and fallen (to their deaths obviously) or the fact that the rock can just crumble under your feet.

I highly recommend both the rafting and the Hummer ride - we were on a 3 week road trip through LA, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, San Fran, Monterrey, etc and this was definitely one of our highlights!

Thank you so much for telling me about this!!! I had not even looked at it, I just figured we'd do the whole day float trip. This looks awesome, we are definitely doing this instead!!! My kids will love the Hummer ride! Would it be terrible for someone with a bad back? My mom may have to stick to just the morning float and skip the hummer adventure, she has a lot of back issues.

 

[3princesshome]

Glad I could help! I know it was hard to plan when I was doing our planning last year without having some good advice from someone who had actually done the activities. As far as the Hummer ride with a bad back, I think you could either have her sit out, or, because you basically have your own private driver (the hummer can only hold up to 5 people), you could request for him to go easy on the off roading - but that is the fun part, so it would be your call. Have fun!

 

[DisSarahK]

You all have me wanting to do this now--and it wasn't even on my radar before!

 

[3princesshome]

One other piece of advice that I forgot to mention: I don't know what time of year you are planning to go (we went in August) but I would book a hotel early. It is not a huge town (although it does have a Walmart ), and it is out in the middle of nowhere (I read somewhere that it is the most remote 'city' in the United States) so there are several hotels, but when we decided to add an extra night to our stay, I couldn't get a reservation for quite some time as everything was booked. We ended up staying at Lake Powell Resort for that night, which is slightly outside of the town, but right on Lake Powell and ended up being a great place to stay (wished we had stayed there all nights). Lake Powell was beautiful, we watched a beautiful sunset at night while the kids played in the pool and it looked like a lot of people went out on boats on the lake which looked really cool too. Just an additional piece of information from someone who's been there

 

[SA mom]

Wow! Those pix are amazing. We'll be at Grand Canyon at the end of July and I am trying to convince my husband to do one of these trips. I'd really like to see the slot canyons, too. Are they a lot different in northern AZ than in the Sedona area?