easy boat/raft trip in southwest
 

My wife and I are taking our 10 year
grandson on a trip to the Grand Canyon, Page & Kayenta, AZ, Bryce and Zion NP this August. We are looking for an easy boat/raft trip down a river. I need some suggestions.

You can go tubing in Springdale, UT, just outside Zion. The Zion Adventure Co rents tubes, you enter the river just across from their location, float 2-3miles downstream where they pick you up.

Water levels in Aug might be low so the ride would be a little bumpy - check with the guides.

Something I have not done yet but want to is go boating on Lake Powell. You could do it from Page I believe.

We did the tubing trip in Springdale last August, and I would not recommend it at that time of year. The river was too low--only ankle deep in some spots. It was very rocky, and the tubes kept getting stuck on the rocks.

Although I haven't done this, some friends have done this float trip near Lake Powell to Lees Ferry and recommend it highly. www.canyon-country.com/lakepowell/rafting.htm

Maybe look into a trip down the San Juan river, which is a bit north of Monument Valley ... slow moving river with beautiful scenery and many exceptional Indian ruins ... dunno if the water level is too low in August and it may be too hot but this would be my choice for an easy family trip.

http://www.riversandruins.com/
http://www.oars.com/utah/sanjuanriverguide.html
http://www.utah.com/raft/rivers/san_juan.htm

Bill

We did a 1 day [Upper Canyon] trip last month with Wild River Expeditions:

http://www.riversandruins.com/

and it was excellent! We started at Bluff Ut and ended at Mexican Hat AZ [they drive you back in van].

The guide was terrific with boat and narrative and the lunch was very good.

This was our first float trip [we usually do white water] and I was afraid that we'd be disappointed with lack of "thrill", but we really enjoyed just sitting back and letting someone else do all the work.

We give this company and the float itself 2 thumbs up.

Deb