A day on the Colorado River

Today started with a cold breakfast because we had to get rolling early today. We were going for a raft ride on the Colorado River in Page, AZ. It's about a 2-1/2 hour drive from the campground.
I must mention though that a night on the trip wouldn't be complete without some annoyance. Last night we had people in the site next to us, up until 3am. Can't wait to get home to get a decent nights sleep.
I still haven't gotten used to how dry it is here. Not complaining, just saying.
Anyway, we started for Page, AZ at 8:30am. We needed to be at the raft tour base camp at 12:30pm, so we should have had plenty of time to have a picnic lunch beforehand. Well an hour into the trip, it dawned on SR's mind that AZ is really odd with time zone stuff. At the Canyon the time is two hours behind central daylight time and the rest of AZ, except the tribal lands do not observe daylight savings. So we were confused about what time it would be in Page. We stopped for short bathroom break at a visitor center and were told that we would arrive in Page at 12:30pm. We quickly scrambled back to the vehicles so we would bot lose anymore time. SR did a website search once we got back in the car and supposedly found out we would arrive in Page at about 11:30am, which would give us an hour to spare. So we were all confused. We arrived to check in for the raft ride and our first question was, what time is it? Thankfully it was only 11:30am. We had an hour to enjoy our picnic lunch and just chill. Which of course is short for yelling at the kids to stop picking on each other. LOL!
At 12:45pm we boarded nice traveling buses for a 4 mile ride to the base of the Glen Canyon Dam. We actually rode thru a 2 mile tunnel that was dug into part of the Glen Canyon mountain. The tunnel was on US Government land which was part of the dam. For those that have been to the Hoover Dam, it's very much like the base of that dam. We even had to go thru a Homeland Security type checkpoint before our trip started.
After getting off the bus we loaded onto about a 18 foot pontoon raft. There we about 17 people on our raft.
Our tour guide for the day, was a Page native named Nick. I knew within a couple of minutes that he would be a great guide for the day. He started by pulling away from the dock saying, I'll get the raft turned around so you can get your dam pictures. Everyone aboard started laughing. He then followed the first joke with several others. We had barely started the ride and everyone was laughing and in a great mood. He even had each person say their name and where they were from. Of course there were a group of Italians, which brought a groan from the Minnesota crowd. LOL! We were pleasantly surprised, they were actually a nice group from Torino. It looked to be a Dad and his two boys and another couple and their son.
Even though Nick was a great tour guide, the sights were easily the highlight of the day! Our tour was a 15 mile ride down the Colorado river in the Glen Canyon. The Glen Canyon leads into the Grand Canyon. About half way thru the float we beached the raft for a break. This allowed the kids and Mike to take a dip in the 47 degree Colorado river. The rest of us just dipped our feet. On this day the water was refreshing but too cold for a swim. All of the kids and Mike actually went under water, much to the amazement of our tour guide and a few others passengers. Also at the break we took a short hike to look at petroglyphics on the canyon wall. They estimated the date of the etchings to be 300 to 1000 years ago. Pretty astonishing.
In this area we think the temperature was well over 100 degrees. Down by the water it was at least 20 degrees cooler, but still pretty hot.
After starting again down river, Nick played an ancient Indian song that his grandfather taught him, on a wooden flute, when he was a little boy. It was quite touching that he was so proud of his Hopi Indian ancestry.
The ride lasted about 3 hours. It was another beautiful day to see the sights. After getting off the raft, we made our way back to the bus for an hour ride back to Page.
We asked Nick for a recommendation for dinner. Turns out he works at the Dam bar and grille at the Dam Plaza. We decided to give it a try. It was a great meal to end the fantastic day.
I'm glad I was dragged kicking and screaming to this one. I was not looking forward to 5 hours in the car for a boat ride. Maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. Thank You all for insisting we go.
Happy Birthday Mike!! I hope you had a great birthday!
Tomorrow we will be leaving early. We are changing our route to avoid the Rocky Mountains. We will be taking the South route thru Flagstaff. We will hit the petrified forest on our way thru Albuquerque and Santa Fe before we head north to Alamosa, CO. 700 miles and 9+ hours of driving, so it will be a long one.
Have a Great Night!