16-Day Grand Canyon Dory Boat Tour

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For some adventure-seekers, a rafting trip along the Colorado River is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so it is understandable why Grand Canyon Expeditions believes “the more memorable trip, the better.”
By embarking on the upcoming 16-Day Dory Boat Tour, visitors can experience the river and the canyon much like John Wesley Powell and his group in 1869.
Led by the 35-year-old Powell, the journey included 10 men in four boats covering 1,000 miles of uncharted territory in the Grand Canyon. It was the first known passage down the Colorado River over the full length of the Grand Canyon.
Like Powell and the men on his expedition, dory boat tour passengers can encounter areas of the Grand Canyon that can only be seen from the water – like emerald pools, hidden waterfalls, colorful flowers and thriving wildlife.Powell’s group used wooden boats not designed for the rigors of the Colorado River’s white water. For the next 70 years, explorers that followed Powell tinkered with designs and techniques, refining the art of rowing wooden boats in white water. In the 1960s, Martin Litton introduced the dory to Grand Canyon after rowing similar boats on the Mackenzie River in Oregon. The next 16-day dory boat trip departs on Sept. 13 and concludes on Sept. 28. The cost is $3,805 for adults and children 6-17.
The Grand Canyon features a diverse and majestic geological extravaganza. It stretches for 277 miles, measures from four to 18 miles in width, and averages a mile in depth. Covering more than 1.2 million acres, the semi-arid canyon consists of raised plateaus, steep-walled canyons, desert basins at lower elevations and forests at higher elevations. Canyon walls provide wide-ranging fossil specimens, a vast array of geological features and rock types, and numerous caves.
Though the Grand Canyon is a desert, it is teeming with plants and wildlife. Cactus and wildflowers dot the riverbanks as well as cool glens with tumbling waterfalls and ferns.  Grand Canyon Expeditions passengers might see bighorn sheep, mule deer, coyotes, and ringtail cats along the riverbanks and in tributary canyons. Hawks, golden eagles, falcons, great blue herons and egrets fly overhead.
To make reservations for any Grand Canyon Expeditions tour, visit www.gcex.com, e-mail gcec@xpressweb.com or call 800-544-2691.
Grand Canyon Expeditions is based at the Visitor Center, which is located at the south rim entrance of Grand Canyon National Park. The visitor center serves as a destination and a resource for the most comprehensive selection of information about Grand Canyon area hotels, tours, attractions, restaurants and sightseeing and outdoor activities.
The Visitor Center features a 500-seat IMAX Theater which shows “Grand Canyon: Rivers of Time,” a 2,500-square-foot outfitter store, the famous Condor Encounter Live Bird Show, exhibits and maps, and national park interpretive services and park passes. The facility also includes a 140-seat restaurant, Expeditions sightseeing tours and the Arizona Office of Tourism.