Grand Canyon by Air

Getting from Marble Canyon to Whitmore Wash by raft took us six days.  Getting from Whitmore Wash back to Marble Canyon took a lot less time.

On day seven, Hatch flies you out of the Canyon to a nearby ranch via helicopter, which is why our last camp was at the Whitmore Wash Helipad.  I think the term "helipad" is used very loosely here, because it was basically a high, flat, very small patch of dirt where you could maybe park a Mini Cooper.  There wasn't even an official-looking "H" marking the area (until one of the kids drew one in the dirt, as a joke).  We got a very early start, and everyone was all packed and ready to go by 7 am.  The helicopter flew in like something out of M*A*S*H and landed on the postage stamp helipad.  We then went up in groups of six or seven based on weight.  Kevin & I were on the second flight, and it was maybe a seven-minute flight to the Bar 10 Ranch.



Bar 10 Ranch is a working cattle ranch where you can ride horses, hike, rent ATVs, shoot skeet, and do other cowboy-ish things.  That's all well and good, but for us the primary activity we wanted to do was hit the showers.  Luckily there were several private shower rooms and plenty of hot water.  It felt really, really good to finally wash all the sand out of my hair.  While we were at the ranch, we also had to check in for our flight back to Marble Canyon.  It was by far one of the most pleasant airline check-in experiences we've had: fast, efficient, no ticketing, no security screening (other than checking your ID), and we got to keep our shoes on the whole time.

The check-in desk for Vision Air

We were taken by bus to Concourse A (the only concourse) where our plane, a nineteen-seater Dornier 228 turboprop, awaited us on the runway.  The flight back to Marble Canyon took about 30 minutes.  Although we weren't able to fly directly over the main section of the Grand Canyon, the view out the window of the side canyons was pretty spectacular.

It was a fitting way to end the trip.  We traveled the Colorado River/Grand Canyon by boat, helicopter, plane, and car.  The only way we could have done any better was by tacking on the Grand Canyon Railway (a real thing) and a submarine tour of Lake Powell (not a real thing - yet).