Grand Canyon- Fly or Drive

Road trip!!!! If driving means you get to paddle the kayak - obvious choice. So much fun down there in a hardshell.

You will have an opportunity to drive through some pretty sweet places. Flying commercial sucks.

I, too, wrestle with this dilemma and usually come down on the side of driving for one reason or another.

I know they aren’t yours, but kayaks and pacos can be rented.

I’d suggest NOT driving through Salt Lake City…even though it’s the direct N/S route. It really sucks. If you’re doing Ceiba, they can rent you a paco pad. Flying is probably cheaper too. Driving back from the ditch to Montana was $700 one way. Brutal! However gas was higher then it was 2021. I saw one station in Az. advertising $7.00/gallon.

I MUCH prefer roadtrips.
Take the long way!
Driving from C. Oreegone to Lee's Ferry was night 1 in Winnemucca (yawn), night two @ Bryce Canyon, night three at Zion then rigged at Lee's Ferry and prefunked at Marble Canyon Lodge the night before we launched.
Took time for (short)hikes and sightseeing whenever we wanted.

The return trip was a night in Vegas(WAY off the strip) then outside Yosemite (spent the afternoon driving\looking around the park) then a long day back to Southern Oreegone. Think we may have even driven through Crater lake on our way home...

Some of the best parts of that trip were in the coming and going!

flying is cool but for a schedule it SUCKS. I'm pretty sure i can someway, somehow, get to a destination on the road. If i'm stranded in Phoenix because its too hot and they oversold the flight and blah blah blah, i'll spend a fortune at the airport bar.

I can barely fit my gear for the river in a car or pickup without the raft, not sure how in the hell you would ever get what you need with you on a plane. But that could be a me problem.

+1 for flying blows hard

Wallrat said:

I’d suggest NOT driving through Salt Lake City…even though it’s the direct N/S route. It really sucks. If you’re doing Ceiba, they can rent you a paco pad. Flying is probably cheaper too. Driving back from the ditch to Montana was $700 one way. Brutal! However gas was higher then it was 2021. I saw one station in Az. advertising $7.00/gallon.

Click to expand...

I live in very SW WY and drive in SLC frequently. As long as you miss the rush hour traffic, it can be a straight shot N to S at 70 mph. Not combat driving IMHO !

eyeboat said:

I live in very SW WY and drive in SLC frequently. As long as you miss the rush hour traffic, it can be a straight shot N to S at 70 mph. Not combat driving IMHO !

Click to expand...

We even hit fairly rush hour traffic last spring heading to the Grand, but there is this bypass road (don't remember the name) and yes we slowed down for a bit to 20 mph but it was only about a half hour of slow travel and then back up to warp speed.

The worst thing is, it’s 200 miles of nonstop suburbia, and horrible freeways, all done at 90 or 15 miles an hour. It goes on and on…one sprawling unplanned city after the other. It takes longer to drive through SLC than it does LA.
I actually broke an axle on a Salt Lake freeway. Fuck that place. I hate it.

HATE it

So too summarize:
a) Fuck flying its lame, drive and bring my kayak
b) Salt Lake is also fucking lame and should be avoided.

Now, How about beer. where does one stash 7, 30packs of cerveza in the raft? Ive read duffel bags, milk crates, duct tape, pretty sure im running an 18ft rig. I am more than willing to pile it up high if i need to and just strap her down. Curious how people pack all those cases of sippping pleasure.

milk crates/duct tape front drop/back drop

wharf-rat said:

Now, How about beer. where does one stash 7, 30packs of cerveza in the raft? Ive read duffel bags, milk crates, duct tape, pretty sure im running an 18ft rig. I am more than willing to pile it up high if i need to and just strap her down. Curious how people pack all those cases of sippping pleasure.

Click to expand...

I had nine/30's on my boat. We ran out on day 15. Fortunately, My uncles had "Bought beer like we were 40, but are drinking it like we're 70" (which they were.)
So I was able to horse trade, in order to keep hydrated the last couple days.

But I digress...

I loaded up my two 54qt beer coolers(about 3/30's, inc. ice), but they only keep ice for a few days. Rotated into them on a daily basis, and used a drag bag for to keep the daily beer cool-ish. I think we duct taped a few boxes, knowing they were going to get trashed, but didn't need to last long. The balance went into a Army surplus duffel, in the bottom of the gearstack.
Worked well.

wharf-rat said:

So too summarize:
a) Fuck flying its lame, drive and bring my kayak
b) Salt Lake is also fucking lame and should be avoided.

Now, How about beer. where does one stash 7, 30packs of cerveza in the raft? Ive read duffel bags, milk crates, duct tape, pretty sure im running an 18ft rig. I am more than willing to pile it up high if i need to and just strap her down. Curious how people pack all those cases of sippping pleasure.

Click to expand...

Hide the beer where your buddies can’t find it. Take a rocket box, and make sure everyone knows that that’s the one the groover tank leaked into. It’s pretty gross, and sorry, I never got around to cleaning it. But I brought it anyway, just in case. Guaranteed, nobody will touch it, and your beer will be safe.

What’s the make/model/ mileage of your car. Can’t raft if you don’t make it to the put in.

A few other things to pile on to driving might be better. I flew last time, and you are limited by the size of battery packs you can bring on a plane, and it would have sucked something awful for my PFD to go to topeka and me to go to Phx. The last one is the biggest thing. Last time I was down was in 2017, and I was the PH and TL. so for the trip to go, I had to be at lees ferry. For a bit the temps in Phoenix were so high that planes could not land, because the air was not dense enough. Boy that would have sucked. Flying will get you on site quicker because 500mph, but, driving you have no limits to the types of toys or amount of toys you can bring. Like a really fancy coffee rig. Your own really sharp kitchen knives....