By: Hilde Schweitzer, jacksonkayak.com -  Every winter I start thinking of being on the Grand Canyon, at first tentatively and then as the weeks fly by, with more and more intensity until the urge to go back becomes all encompassing. Every spring and summer since 1976 I make the reverse migration to the Canyon, guided by an internal GPS so strong and true I only have to plug the word “home” into it, for the Grand is as much my home as Coloma California is.

Anyone who has ever done a Grand Canyon trip knows that it is usually described as the trip of a lifetime or a life changing experience. It is all that and more. You are isolated for two weeks in a place where there is no cell reception, no computer to check email or download Apps, no means to hear what is happening in the world, living out of a bag the size of a small carryon and you discover something truly amazing: You are actually happy with relatively nothing. There is something so magical, so timeless, and so intense about the Canyon that as a kayaker, I can’t think of a better multi-week adventure anywhere else in the World.

A lot of the mystique of the river lies in its vastness– both physically and metaphysically. You are literally traveling through an open book of geologic time marked by rocks almost two billion years old and are dwarfed by a canyon that towers a mile over your head. It is really grounding to stand on the same soil and touch the same objects that were left there over 1200 years ago by ancient Pueblo peoples. What you are and what you do outside of this Canyon matters very little. It is a place for tremendous growth and unlimited introspection mixed in with an unthinkable amount of sheer joy and inner peace.

There are two ways to do a Grand trip as a kayaker- private or commercial, and each has their own unique value. The first way is to do a private trip that requires a permit from the National Park Service that can take several years to obtain through a lottery. It also requires that you know rafters capable and willing to haul your food and gear for the trip (and believe me, the better you know these people the happier you will be). Group size can be from 1-16 and the length of the trip is limited by what season you begin your journey but can be up to 21 days. If you have this infrastructure, get yourself on the NPS list to do a private trip!

The second way to get on the Canyon is to do a commercial trip with one of the 16 permitted outfitters that use either oar boats or motor rigs. This way is the easiest but it can cost you from two to three times what a private trip will run but when you factor in that it truly is all-inclusive the cost per day is reasonable. Commercial groups are also limited by size and a typical oar group including guides is around 25 people in the high summer season. I have done both private and commercial trips and even taking away the fact that I guide down there, in my opinion a commercial trip is the way to go if you kayak. Commercial trips take all of the logistical problems out of your hands. You show up with your boat, your paddle and a couple changes of clothes and get fed gourmet food, get taken on spectacular side hikes that range from well trodden paths to obscure trails and know that the only thing you have to do for two weeks is enjoy yourself. Hard to beat.

Of the two types of commercial trips done in the Canyon–oar or motor—I prefer the oar trips. Nothing against motors, but as a kayaker I think I like oar trips mostly because they are more kin to a kayak than are the motor rigs. One of the most intense things in the Canyon is the general isolation from man-made noise and you will treasure the memory of the unique sounds of the Canyon long after you leave. Being in a place so isolated from the noise we are so familiar with in our lives is both comforting and cathartic.

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