Grand Canyon Guidebook

Books like Tom Martin’s river map and hiking guidebooks provide great information for Grand Canyon trips, but lack knowledge about how to prepare for and execute a self-support kayak trip, and don’t have any kayak-specific beta on rapids, camping, or hikes. This guidebook aims to answer questions about temperatures and daylight at different times of year, how to negotiate the Park Service regulations as a kayaker (i.e. “How to Build Your Own Groover”), shuttle logistics, what hikes work best on a self-support schedule, and more, as well as providing basic advice for undertaking long, self-supported river trips.

The online guidebook is a work in progress and will ultimately become a print guidebook.

Articles

Seth Swallen and Jackie Selevan in the narrows at North Canyon, a great stop on day 1 or 2.

How to Fit Hikes in to a Grand Canyon Self-Support Itinerary

When you tell someone you’re self-support kayaking the Grand Canyon, or that you’re doing a...
A few different boat choices at the Little Colorado confluence.

Boat Choice

At this point, people have self-support kayaked the Grand Canyon in craft ranging from an...
NPS required gear checklist.

NPS Grand Canyon Gear Regulations for Kayakers

The National Park Service has a gear list that’s strictly enforced for river trips through...
Lunch stop near Blacktail Canyon.

Example 10-Day Grand Canyon Itinerary

Ever wonder what the itinerary for a 10-day kayak trip down the Grand Canyon might...
The team in Silver Grotto on a 2016 self-support through the Grand Canyon.

Everything You Need to Know About the Grand Canyon Lottery

How The Grand Canyon Lottery Works Grand Canyon permitting used to be governed by a...
The individual pieces of the firepan.

Firepan Requirements in the Grand Canyon

The important dimensions are required by the NPS regs: the pan needs to be 300...
The groover mounted in the altered center wall of the Remix XP

Grand Canyon Groovers

In the section of the NPS’s Noncommercial River Trip Regulations entitled “Human Waste Carry-Out Method” (Page...

Why You Should Do a Winter Trip Through the Grand Canyon

Dark, cold, and miserable — that’s what a lot of people expect from a winter...