White Water Rafting and Camping in the Grand Canyon with Wilderness River Adventures - Mile 168.6 Fern Glen Rapid to Mile 187.4 Whitemore Helipad

September 2023

White Water Rafting and Camping in the Grand Canyon with Wilderness River Adventures – Mile 168.6 Fern Glen Rapid to Mile 187.4 Whitemore Helipad

Read about Mile 127 127 Mile Rapid to Mile 168.6 Fern Glen Rapid here!

Day 4

Every morning this trip has been 530AM wake up call but because we made so much progress yesterday, we got to sleep in this morning and enjoy the campsite. The chilly morning began to warm up as the sun continued to rise in the sky. Breakfast was an arrangement of make your own breakfast burritos with eggs, potatoes, and more. It was a relaxing morning and we all enjoyed the pace on our last full day river running in the Grand Canyon.

After we packed up the rafts, we went on a short walk around Fern Glen to relax while our guides read stories from the Grand Canyon – some funny such as reading Grover/Oscar stories from folks and some moving like early descriptions of the Grand Canyon.

Today’s rapids were mostly calm as we left the deepest part of the Grand Canyon and the granite layers. We had one big rapid at Mile 179.7 called Lava Falls – the second rapid on the river named as a “falls”. This class 10 rapid is iconic for river runners and is one of the most famous rapids in the world. It is even listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as “the fastest navigable water in all of North America at 20 mph”. And it is quick and difficult to navigate as a class 10 rapid – the drop is over 37 ft in just a hundred yards so it can be fast and crazy.

We found a spot for lunch and we hung here longer than we typically did for our afternoon break. We enjoyed lunch meat sandwiches before our guides broke out the giant chocolat and candy bags as an added treat.

After a thrilling ride down Lava Falls, we left the “land of the noses” to lava land. This was certainly an unexpected portion of the Grand Canyon – who knew there were lava flows in the Grand Canyon. The Uinkaret volcanic field is located along the north rim and dates back 725,000 to 100,000 years ago and the lava flows made it all the way down into the bottom of the canyon, and is likely the creation of the most intense rapid, Lava Falls. For most of the rest of the rafting journey, our guides turned motors off and we simply floated. Some people jumped in the river to cool off and float. While some moments were in peaceful silence, others were with music of all sorts – some got us rocking and others put us in awe. It was truly magical in every way. We even spotted a kingfisher leading the way and guided us down the river. and swam, music, magical.

Day 4 rapids conquered:

Mile 168.5 – Fern Glen Rapid (Class 2 Rapid)
Mile 171.9 – Gateway Rapid (Class 3 Rapid)
Mile 179.7 – Lava Falls Rapid (Class 9 Rapid)
Mile 180.1 – Lower Lava Rapid (Class 4 Rapid)
Mile 186.0 – 185 Mile Rapid (Class 2 Rapid)
Mile 187.4 – Whitmore Helipad

I was surprised that our campsite for the night was literally the helipad! This was certainly not the best spot as there were little areas that allowed water access so we did our best to find a decent site for our last sleep. There were many bunches of all of our favorite things – harvest ants, spiders, mice, and bats – but it was the last sleep outside for the final crescendo. Because of the way the rocks were, our sunlight was limited, and the stars and a crescent moon graced us as we finished unloading the raft. Dinner tonight was an extravagant display of pesto chicken, pasta, garlic bread, and salad. It was delicious! As we packed up our bags and readied for bed, I could not believe the last night was here- our last night sleeping at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.