I booked a trip with friends with GCE for May 12-19, 2023. Watching this got me even more excited than I already am. Great info. I'll be 65 next year and in good shape. Looking forward to it.
@@ARoarHar You should. Guaranteed lols. I went to the GC the last time I was in the US. It was phenomenal and also overwhelming. I just watched a Nat Geo doco on the GC which sent me on a deep dive on YT which is how I found your vid. I’ve added the trip you did to my bucket list for the next time I’m in the US 🤞🏻 Also, the dressing up for your friends 50th, classic. ☺️
Wow! I wish I had been on that trip. So beautiful! You did a great job being our tour guide. I feel like you're an old friend who's a great travel companion. I especially appreciated learning the nitty-gritty logistics of the "groover," hairwashing, and the gear. Details like those help me know what to expect. The scenery is stunning, but it's also good to know about the facts of life on the trail. I can't wait to go! Many thanks for this terrific video! P.S. What did you use to keep your camera and phone charged?
Thank you! I really appreciate the positive comments! There is absolutely no cell reception in the canyon, so my phone (my primary camera) was on airplane mode the whole time and that's definitely a battery saver. I took one 20 mAh battery bank. It was plenty of juice for my phone for the whole trip, even with me filming a lot. Most of the rapids were filmed on my gopro and I brought a couple of extra batteries for it too.
I don't generly commet on RU-vid but your video is 100% worth it. What a great real account of the trip. Thank you for documenting it and sharing and being real!
Wow, thanks for the great video & all the details. Best GC video I’ve ever watched. I went on the 4 night and added the bar 10 ranch as well for a night, it was so fun! I really want to do the 8 day like you did. Thanks!!
It's such an amazing place to go. I hope you get a chance to do the 8 day. I'm saving up to do the non-motorized trip, but it's gonna be a while before that happens. Thanks for watching and thanks for subscribing!
Great video. Thanks for the wonderful tour. We are heading out for an 8 day motorized trip in June of 21. We've done a lot of hiking and backpacking in the Grand Canyon so it will be "glamping" for us too. I'm looking forward to being spoiled and to see many sights that we haven't been able to hike to during our adventures.
Thank you so much for this video! My mom and I are doing an 8 day GC raft trip with GCE in June 2021 and this was so helpful! It gives us a great idea of what we can expect. And we were wondering about the poop situation, so that was great information!
I have watched several videos on these trips and I can say with confidence your video was the most informative and well put together. I wanted to see what it was like as I will most likely never experience it myself, I feel like I have now after watching your video. Thank you !!!
Wow this is such an informative video, thank you so much! We leave for this exact trip in 7 days, and now really excited and will be more prepared. I was worried about bringing my phone for pictures and videos but now I’m not after someone asked you that question. We’re going with a group of our couple friends, 14 of us. Also I was worried about cool nights.
Thank you for a very informative and entertaining video. I have hiked to Phantom twice and Havasupai once but haven't done what you folks have done. Thanks again.
I would love to do the hike down to Havasupai! I used to live in Flagstaff and hiked the canyon a lot, but never got around to Havasupai. It's on my "bucket list." Thanks for watching and thanks so much for subscribing! It's going to take me a little time, but new videos are in the works!
Hello, thank you for all your notes and advice! I'm not a camper by any stretch of the imagination, so this trip (July 2021) will be outside of my comfort zone. The more I know what to expect the more comfortable I will be. Looking forward to the experience!!
You will have a blast! It’s out of a lot of people’s comfort zone, but, once you get the routine after the first or second day it’s a trip of a lifetime! I went down in 2016 and it’s a trip of a lifetime!
This was a fantastic video thanks so much! Going on a similar trip starting the last week in May. What shoes do you recommend? It looks like people on hikes were wearing anything from flip-flops to light hiking boots. And do people typically wear a bathing suit under the rain gear while they’re on the raft? Thanks, again!
Enjoyed the video. We are taking a trip down the river in a couple weeks. Your video answered a few questions I hadn’t yet thought to ask. Very helpful. What sort of camera and waterproofing did you use? Good quality. Thank you.
It was June 8th-16th if I'm remembering correctly. The water was definitely chilly, but the air temps were actually quite pleasant. 10 days sounds wonderful! I would have loved to have a longer trip! We had to coordinate the vacation schedules of multiple people, so we could only do 8 days. Sleeping was no problem, but I'm a pretty sound sleeper and used to sleeping outdoors. I think after a couple nights everyone was sleeping well. Having the river for "white noise" was definitely helpful. Thanks for watching!
Awesome share. You’re a gift. I love the reality of those struggling with the trip,good to see all aspects. What are the dates for this good colored water??
This was such a great, fun, and informative video. I'll be taking this same trip at the end of August, and sent the link to the "organizer" to pass on to the others in our group. I'm planning on documenting the entire thing as a gift to those who'll be on the trip. I am stressing about how much actual filming I'll be doing. As you can imagine I don't want to under do it or over do it. What kind of mic did you use? How many memory cards? How many batteries and power packs. What kind of gear did you use? How much did you record versus what ended up in your video?
Thanks for watching and for sharing my video! I used pretty simple gear. I mostly used my phone, a Rode VideoMicro microphone, a cheap phone mount that has a spot to mount the microphone and a gorilla pod for my tripod/selfie-stick. I also used a gopro hero 8 on a wrist mount (mostly for going through the rapids). It's hard to remember exactly but I think for the gopro I just had a couple of 128g micro sd cards and that was more than enough. I brought 2 extra gopro batteries and definitely drained them. My phone at the time was a Samsung galaxy note 9 with 265g storage, I think. I did 90% of the filming on my phone and had plenty of extra storage space. I brought a couple of 20K mAh Anker power banks and that was plenty. There is absolutely no cell signal in the canyon so putting the phone in airplane mode the whole time saved a lot of battery life. And oh goodness, I recorded a whole lot more than what made it in the video. Hard to say how much, but I'd bet I ended up with 8+ hours of footage to edit down, so actual filming was maybe an hour total a day. The rest of the time was just spent enjoying the trip. Hope you have a great trip!
@@bg215pa I can connect the gopro to my phone, but I very rarely do. Really, I just kind of blindly point the gopro in the direction I want to shoot and cross my fingers that I'm getting a decent shot. 🙂
@@Bruinshockeycards A wrist band. It was a cheap wrist band from Amazon. It allowed me to video while still holding on to the boat with both hands through the bigger rapids.
Great video, do you know who started the moterized rafting thru Grand canyon?? I have video called voyage of the Driftwood. It's on RU-vid. Check it out, it was in 1954 a grip of Apen doors and hitchhikers went from Aspen to Vegas.
Thank you so much for the video. One of the best I have seen to get a really good understanding of what to expect. One question. How did you keep batteries charged for all the video? Did you have a lot of batteries, used solar charger or does the boats have a generator?
Thanks for watching! I brought two 20,000 mAh power bricks and a small solar panel. I didn't end up needing the solar panel as the two bricks were enough for the whole time. The boats don't have any generators, so you have to bring all your own power.
Thank you so much for this. I leave Saturday for the 7 day motorized. Was the hiking hard on your knees? I had had meniscus surgery a year ago and am worried about some of those steep climbs. Was that an issue for anyone on your trip?
Nephilim made. Grand Canyon =the city of Giants. Some newer structures are made thousand years ago and while others million years ago. But all are made by Nephilims You can see rows of building stones, towers, fortresses etc. Horse shoe bend is the same symetrical construction with Ardèche France, Czesky Krumlov in Czechia, Boppard in Germany and other places. This is not occurred by chance, it is by design.
Ty so much for the video. I appreciate it was "real" and not just the good stuff. I've got a trip scheduled with this company in Sept 2021. Im curious about the people who DIDNT have a good time and how that effected the rest of the grouo. Did it put everyone on edge and deminish the good times? Looking back on it, do you have any advice on what to do or what NOT to do? Ty in advance for any info. I can share my email if that's an easier way to communicate. Take care! - Shane
Thank you so much for watching! There were plenty of "good times," even for our friends that weren't loving the whole experience, so it really didn't bring down the group. Everyone has fun on the rapids! It was a very positive experience overall. As far as what to do, or not to do, that's harder to give advice for as everyone is different. Embrace the fact that you're going to get sand in everything and just enjoy the experience! Bring some bug spray, bring locking carabiners to attach your water bottle to the boat or your backpack, and bring a shemagh or sarong to dip in the water to cool off when it gets hot. Really, don't worry too much about the small things (all the big things are taken care of by the company), and enjoy the trip! I wish I were going back out there again!
I believe it was about $2800 plus tips for the guides. Also had airfare to Vegas (about $200). The food was great! Breakfasts were full cooked breakfasts, things like bacon, eggs, and pancakes with fresh fruit. Lunches were sandwiches, wraps, chips, cookies, etc. Dinners were things like fajitas, steak, or chicken, with veggies or salad, and with bread or pasta. There were also hors d'oeuvres before dinner, snacks in between meals, and desserts every night. Lots of food and it was all really good!
Honestly, I didn't have one concern about bears or mountain lions. Sure, there are some in the canyons, but they are not abundant and are very unlikely to bother a large group. I guess you could carry bear spray (I did not feel the need to) and be sure to keep food out of your camp, but other than that, I really wouldn't worry about them.
