The Grand Canyon is a harsh environment, especially in summer when temperatures surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit. And if you spend a week rafting there, it will feel even more extreme as you switch between hot air and cold water. Add camping into the mix, and you’ll definitely start missing the comforts of home.
I recently spent a week on a Grand Canyon rafting trip with Wilderness River Adventures. The company provides an excellent packing list, but some of us followed it more closely than others. I talked to my raftmates about what they were glad they’d brought with them — and what they were sorry to have left out of their dry bags.
While cruising the polar regions with Quark Expeditions, passengers rely on Ultramarine’s well-stocked shop for all the stuff they should have brought from home. I bought several things myself during a recent Arctic cruise, despite doing some of my best pre-trip preparation. This Arctic packing list comes from my experience and the greater wisdom of Anna Mitieva, store manager aboard Ultramarine. She shared with me the top things people forget to pack and wind up buying on the ship.
Mitieva, a Ukrainian refugee, has run the shop since Quark hired her in early 2022. “I arrived destroyed, shocked, wrecked, exhausted. So they adopted me.” While Mitieva already spoke English, she had to learn lots of new vocab, like musk ox, narwhal, and carabiner. Quark took care of Mitieva, and now Mitieva cares for the shop and the needs of the passengers.
Anna Mitieva runs Ultramarine’s excellent shop. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Two thousand paddlers of all skill levels will converge on the Ohio River in Cincinnati during the first weekend in August. It’s the 22nd annual Ohio River Paddlefest, and if you have a SUP, kayak, or canoe, you can join in.
The Ohio River Paddlefest is the biggest paddling event in the United States. It kicks off on the evening of Friday, August 4, with the Outdoors For All Expo. Then, on Saturday, August 5, participants will choose between paddling a 9- or 4.5-mile course. Paddlefest is a fundraiser for the nonprofit Adventure Crew, which connects city teens in Cincinnati and northern Kentucky with nature and each other via outdoor adventures.
Paddlers enjoying the festival. / Photo courtesy of Adventure Crew
“Between Ohio River Paddlefest and the Outdoors for All Expo, Paddlefest weekend has become a can’t-miss event for outdoor enthusiasts,” Miriam Wise, director of support and engagement for Adventure Crew, said in a statement. “Mark your calendars and invite your friends and family to join us the first weekend in August for this much-loved annual tradition.”
The Outdoors for All Expo is free and open to the public. It features 50 exhibitors, including outdoor outfitters, local parks, and environmental organizations. You can listen to live music, enter a raffle, and buy dinner from a food truck. Paddlefest costs $50 for adults and $25 for youth joining the 9-mile paddle. The 4.5-mile paddle is five bucks less. It’s best to bring your own kayak, SUP, or canoe, but a limited number of boats are available for rent.
This year, organizers have added a new event: a kayak bass fishing tournament that runs both Friday and Saturday. Anglers can try their luck in any of three Ohio River tributaries: Great Miami River, Little Miami River, or Licking River.
Adventure Crew was founded in 2013. It serves all Cincinnati Public Schools high schools, seventh and eighth graders in certain Cincinnati elementary schools, and six schools in northern Kentucky. Annually, the organization helps nearly a thousand students step beyond their comfort zone and seek a deep connection to nature.
“Every dollar we raise through Paddlefest supports that mission,” Wise said. “So by signing up to paddle on Saturday or buying raffle tickets and a beer on Friday, you’re helping us get city teens who might not otherwise have access to nature out on adventures like hiking, biking and of course, paddling. It’s a great way to share your love of the outdoors while having a great time in the process.”
Would you like to live where reindeer roam the streets, you have an entire month of slow-motion sunset, and it’s illegal to die? Then come on up to Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost city. Located at 78.2232-degree latitude, the biggest settlement in the Norwegian Arctic’s Svalbard archipelago is just 650 miles from the North Pole.
I gleaned this info while visiting the area with Quark Expeditions. Quark guide Gerardo “Gordo” Stern shared many of these fun facts with passengers on our Arctic cruise. Stern, originally from Buenos Aires, spent a year in the unusual town of Longyearbyen. Here’s how the city’s approximately 2,200 inhabitants live.
An eight-ton motorized raft chugged down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Inside, I sat with two new Australian friends. Our seats were called “the bathtub” — and it’s obvious why. Every minute or two, we entered another set of giant, heaving rapids. We shivered in puddles of water, even though the air temperature was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. We were also shrieking, laughing our heads off, and getting sillier by the minute as we tried kicking the rapids away from us with our soaked shoes.
This is what a typical summer day rafting through the Grand Canyon with Wilderness River Adventures (WRA) is like. Our seven-day trip started at Lees Ferry and covered 188 miles of sometimes roiling, sometimes calm river. We had the best imaginable view of the Grand Canyon — from the bottom up. We listened to the river all day and night as we stargazed, marveled at waterfalls, and spotted cute lizards doing pushups.
A calm stretch of water. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Could a Grand Canyon rafting trip be for you? Read on to find out.
Commercial vs. private
Potential guests must choose between joining a commercial group or getting a private permit and bringing their own raft. For most people, a commercial tour is the better option. The Colorado River rapids are huge. Unless you’re an experienced rafter and a wiz at reading currents, don’t even think about leading your own trip. Plus, permits are hard to get. If you enter the private rafting lottery system, you might wait years for your chance.
If you opt for commercial, there are a few options. I went with the cushiest choice — a seven-night trip on a motor-driven raft. The 35-foot-long raft included two inflatable pontoons to help keep it afloat. WRA also offers oar-powered boats, either rowed by the guide or by all the participants. The company’s trips last from three and a half days to two weeks. The shortest trips entail a grueling 10-mile hike into the canyon to meet the rafts.
The Wilderness River Adventure rafts, parked for a lunch break. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
“It has been voted one of the number one outdoor recreation vacations in the world for multiple years running,” Richard Adkins, our trip leader, told me. “It’s crazy because it’s a very small number of people who can actually do this. We only let 18-23,000 people come through here a year.”
Adkins is in his 29th year as a raft guide, so he has shared canyon views with thousands of people. “The way to see the Grand Canyon is definitely from the bottom up, instead of from the top down. People want to experience the whitewater but they also want to see the Grand Canyon. And a lot of people just want to say that they did it.”
A typical day on the Colorado River
Our two-raft party could accommodate up to 24 guests and four guides. My group had only 17 guests, so there was lots of space to spread out. We ranged in age from 10 to early 70s and included four Australians, two Canadians, and 11 Americans.
On the first day, a bus took us from the rafting company office in Page, Arizona, to our put-in spot at Lees Ferry. There, we had the first of several orientations, focusing on how to get on and off the raft and where and where not to sit. We learned about the wettest places on the boat (the bathtub and the shower, the spot on the front side where water shoots up between the raft and pontoon and comes down on your head) and the driest (elevated seats in the back called the chicken coop).
Nonstop scenery in the Grand Canyon. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Our days on the river started early — coffee call was at 5:30 a.m., and we were on the raft every day by 7:30 a.m. The days began cool and shaded by the canyon’s enormous rock walls. Many of us wore rain gear to protect us from the cold rapids until the day heated up.
We’d cruise along for a couple of hours, alternating between rapids and flat water, gazing at the canyon’s incredible rock formations. Each day included pit stops (where we’d look for discreet places to pee in the river) and a lunch stop where the staff expertly set up a table with elaborate sandwich fixings, chips, and cookies. Some days featured optional side hikes to waterfalls, our guides offered bite-sized bits of geology and history info here and there. Sometime in the afternoon, Adkins would choose our camp for the night. Since campsites are on a first-come, first-served basis, we never knew where we’d end up.
Getting drenched in a waterfall. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Camp life
Once we arrived at camp, everybody staked out the best campsites. Some campgrounds had areas where a couple or family could have a bit of privacy. At others, people were lined up in a row or otherwise close to their neighbors.
After choosing a site, we made fire lines off the raft for a massive unloading. We passed the cots, camp chairs, dry bags, and kitchen gear from person to person until it was all on the shore. At our campsites, we set up rickety blue cots and made our beds with a sheet and a sleeping bag. We had some free time to read, write, socialize, and huddle under bushes and tiny rock ledges for shade.
As we descended into the canyon, it got hotter and hotter. Adkins’s advice on climate control was: “If you get too hot, get in the river. If you get too cold in the river, get out.” There was a lot of getting in and out of the river. We also experienced a lot of sand, as frequent sandstorms blew it into every crevice.
Home sweet campsite. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
At mealtimes, the crew cooked amazing dishes. These are some hardworking people. I don’t know how they run the rafts all day, keep guests safe, and then whip up elaborate meals in the camp kitchen, from fish tacos to Dutch oven brownies. And they accommodated many diets. Our trip had a vegan, a vegetarian, a pescatarian, a couple of lactose-intolerant people, and a diabetic. Nobody went hungry.
Guides Shyanne Yazzie and Jared Castro cooking a delicious meal. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Elimination was also a big topic of discussion around the camp. All solid waste must be packed out, so we had mini toilets that had to be packed on and off the boat at every campsite. Also, we weren’t allowed to pee anywhere except directly into the river or in a bucket at camp. This was to prevent the campsites from smelling like giant litter boxes.
Camp toilets with a view. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
In the evenings, we all pulled our camp chairs into a circle. Our group included a family of seven — three siblings, a spouse, two kids, and a teenage cousin — with a long family history of rafting the Grand Canyon. This was the first time for the kids but the second to fourth time for the four adults.
Fellow traveler Megan Dukes first came as a child and fondly remembers having a family adventure together. “My favorite part was the evenings when we sat around, and I got to hang out with my cousins that I don’t get to see that often,” she said. “And being on the boat with my family.”
Photo by Teresa Bergen
After a few days, everybody felt like family. Spurred on by our youngest members, the evenings were soon full of fun. We faced off in a cutthroat card game called Egyptian rat screw and a roleplaying game called Ultimate Werewolf.
Highlights of a Grand Canyon rafting trip
Rafting through the Grand Canyon is an incredible experience. For me, the scenic highlight was a side trip to the Little Colorado River, which is a milky aqua color. We parked the rafts and walked a short distance to where the Colorado meets the Little Colorado. You can see where they connect when the aqua stops and turns dark green. We put our life jackets on like diapers (very inelegant) so they’d cushion our bums as we floated down the Little Colorado. It was some of the most beautiful water I’ve ever seen.
The amazing aqua water of the Little Colorado River. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
My guides were another highlight. I stayed on the raft piloted by Shyanne Yazzie, who is part of the Diné (aka Navajo) tribe. Her swamper, or assistant, was Kim Bighorse, who is Apache. Eleven tribes once lived in the Grand Canyon, Yazzie told me, though only the Havasupai remain. She and Bighorse greatly enriched the trip by sharing family stories and the traditional interp. Today, most of the rapids that bear people’s names commemorate white guys, so obviously, some stories are missing. I felt lucky to be guided through the Grand Canyon by Yazzie and Bighorse.
Then there were the stars. I slept better than I expected on my cot, but it still wasn’t super comfortable. So, I’d often wake up in the middle of the night. For a moment, I’d forget where I was. Then, I’d open my eyes and be blown away by the stars, moonlight, and enormous canyon walls.
As Yazzie told me, “I feel like everybody should come down and raft the Grand Canyon at least once in your life. Because it will change your life and it will also open your eyes to new possibilities and adventure. Take a pause in your busy life and just come down and enjoy this grand beauty that not a lot of people get to see.”
Shyanne Yazzie, guide extraordinaire, in her beloved Grand Canyon. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
I try to turn my kayak in time but wind up sideswiping yet another iceberg. Kayaking in the Arctic is a steering challenge, what with chunks of ice everywhere. Navigating ice is part of the adventure while sea kayaking on a Quark Expeditions cruise to Svalbard aboard the ship Ultramarine. And does it ever pay off! Being surrounded by vast mountain ranges, paddling close to walruses, and listening to sparkling chunks of ice crack as they melt are unforgettable experiences.
“You’ll remember those sounds your whole life,” Jane Whitney, our kayak expedition leader, assured me.
I was extremely lucky to get a spot in the sea kayaking group, as only 10 were available. Our group got to paddle seven times during the cruise. Everybody else spent their off-ship time on land or taking Zodiac safaris. There was also a scaled-down paddle program, where people went out once or twice on sit-atop, inflatable kayaks.
Dodging ice. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Where is Svalbard?
This Norwegian archipelago lies between Norway and the North Pole. You get there by flying into Longyearbyen, the world’s northernmost settlement of more than a thousand people. Longyearbyen is on Spitsbergen, the archipelago’s biggest island. Tourism isn’t new to Svalbard — American John Munro Longyear visited on a cruise back in 1901, then returned to extract coal from the impressive seams — but it’s become more accessible in the last couple of decades.
Now, Longyearbyen is the jumping-off point for trips offered by Quark and other cruise lines. After my 10-day excursion with Quark left from Longyearbyen, we saw few signs of human life except for occasional glimpses of other boats. Instead, we experienced vast ranges of snowy mountains, icebergs, floating sheets of ice, 24 hours of sunlight, and quiet broken only by cries of seabirds.
The mighty Ultramarine. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Whales in the Arctic
At almost 1 a.m. on our second night, an announcement came over the loudspeaker: a blue whale had been sighted near the boat. I stumbled out of bed, pulled on my Quark-issued yellow polar parka, slipped on some shoes, grabbed my key card, and climbed two flights of stairs to deck five.
There, I joined a handful of fellow passengers who had answered the call. Some were smart enough to put on wooly hats or grab their sunglasses. The sun on the water is ferocious in the middle of the night in Svalbard, at the top of the world. Most people threw on their yellow jackets or white robes. Their lower halves were mostly pajama bottoms or bare legs.
Scanning for wildlife on Ultramarine. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
The captain stopped our ship, and everything stood still. The blue whale had dived. It could take 30 minutes for the creature to reappear. In the meantime, the much smaller minke whale made an appearance, part of its back flashing in and out of the water. I held a hand in front of my face this way and that, trying to shield my eyes. Would I get frostbite and/or go blind from looking at the midnight sun before this whale resurfaced?
I almost gave up. But then part of the blue whale’s long back broke the surface. When it spouted, we heard a loud snuffling noise, like it was sighing out water. We see more back and more spouting as it dives and resurfaces. The dives were shallow — it must’ve been feeding close to the surface — so we never saw the tail. Our fingers were freezing, but we couldn’t stop watching. Every time I thought about going back to bed, that long, dark gray back popped up, and the spout sighed and snuffled. I didn’t stop watching until the ship started moving again, and we left the blue whale behind.
Penguins and other Arctic wildlife
In Svalbard, you have to put in the time to spot animals. Many passengers on my cruise had previously been to Antarctica, where apparently penguins are everywhere, and you don’t even need binoculars to see them.
“This is more like being on a safari,” fellow passenger Carol Lafrenaye told me. Quark had trained spotters stationed around the ship with binoculars 24/7. And they weren’t shy about waking us up for sightings, as we learned several times.
We had some excellent walrus sightings from our kayaks. Whitney has led tours all over the Arctic, among other places. She worries more about walruses than polar bears when kayaking.
“They won’t try to eat you,” she said of walruses, but they’re clumsy and curious. A 2,000-pound animal does not mix well with a tippy sea kayak. We were careful to keep our distance as we paddled by walruses, both when they were onshore and floating on sea ice.
Neither the walrus nor the reindeer were fazed by our presence. Reindeer kept grazing as our group paddled or hiked by them. Arctic foxes were warier and took off zigzagging up the mountains.
A local reindeer grazes in the middle of Longyearbyen. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Everybody wanted to see polar bears — to the point that several times when we saw seals, a fellow paddler wished aloud that a polar bear would show up to eat them. On the very last night of the cruise, we had an incredible opportunity to see a polar bear swim right by the boat, then hunt two seals that were floating on sheets of sea ice. Spoiler alert: the seals both got away. After its failed attempts, the bear dragged itself out onto an ice floe and proceeded to do a series of calisthenics. This included dragging its chest against the ice with its butt in the air and rolling on its back while waving its legs around. Truly amazing.
Walrus viewing by kayak. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Land excursions
Time on terra firma included hikes or perimeter landings. This meant that we landed by Zodiac, then stayed within the perimeter formed by our armed polar bear guards. Yes, a disturbing fact about Svalbard is the requirement to carry firearms. Expedition guides who revere wildlife must be prepared to kill a polar bear to save a guest.
Photo by Teresa Bergen
While sea kayaking was the best part of my trip, our best bird viewing was from land or on Zodiacs. At one stop, we climbed a snowy, icy hill to see a breeding colony of little auks, darling black and white birds. We sat and watched them swirl overhead. And, of course, everybody wanted to see adorable puffins. At Krossfjorden, our Zodiac drivers took us to the base of the cliffs. There, we were close enough to see the puffins’ red-orange beaks and feet.
In between off-boat expeditions and while in transit, we spent time on the deck looking through binoculars or in the auditorium listening to the resident geologist, ornithologist, historian, and marine biologist give lively lectures on the world of Svalbard.
Hanging out with Krossfjorden Glacier. / Photo courtesy of Teresa Bergen
Catching the Arctic bug
Not everybody appreciates the Arctic, Whitney tells me. She’s had people compare the austere rocks and ice to a gravel dump. “They didn’t see the light and they didn’t see the ice,” she said. “Other people are blown away by it. It depends how you see things. I think you either catch the Arctic bug or you don’t.”
Judging from my hundreds of photos celebrating a newfound appreciation for ice, I think the Arctic bug has bitten me.
Ice. It’s all over the place in the Arctic. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Cool water is a great relief as summer heats up. So, many people take to the rivers, lakes, and oceans on all sorts of vessels. While this usually results in a fun day out, never underestimate the power of water. Accidents happen. Fortunately, a little preparation and education can minimize risks for you, your friends, your family, and your water-loving pets. Here’s what you need to know, with tips and accident stats from the U.S. Coast Guard and other venerable bodies. Whether you’re piloting a motorboat, pontoon boat, canoe, or kayak, reduce your chances of collision, drowning, and other water-related hazards with these tips.
Not many people get to visit Mitlenatch Island, and the seabirds like it that way. This important nesting site rests in the middle of the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island. Mitlenatch means “calm waters all around” in the Coast Salish language. But visitors might wonder if they were joking. The wind often kicks up too much for folks to land on this island, which is only accessible by boat.
When I visited, my group got lucky and arrived on an idyllic spring day. Mitlenatch is in a rain shadow, so it only gets about 30 inches of rain annually — which is nothing in coastal British Columbia. We stopped off at Mitlenatch as part of a five-day cruise via posh catamaran with the Victoria-based company Maple Leaf Adventures. If you’re interested in birds or plants, it’s a fascinating trip to take.
How to reach Mitlenatch Island
Visiting Mitlenatch on a calm spring day was delightful. After walking on the island, we circumnavigated it by boat to watch sea lions and harbor seals lounging on rocks. Several tour groups and water taxis offer service from nearby Cortes Island or Vancouver Island. Depending on the weather and the condition of your muscles, it’s also possible to kayak to Mitlenatch.
You could kayak to Mitlenatch. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Cactus and wildflowers
Greg Shea, our boat’s naturalist, told us we were looking for cactus on Mitlenatch. What?! I’d never heard of cactus growing in British Columbia. But sure enough, we found prickly pears, thanks to the rain shadow.
Wild cacti growing in British Columbia! / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Spring is also the time to see wildflowers blooming. Local species include purple camas, pink pea flowers, yellow monkey flowers, and chocolate lilies. While most of the surrounding islands have tall trees, Mitlenatch is mostly treeless due to the rain shadow and “shallow dry soils.” This lower flora profile makes for gorgeous wildflowers.
Chocolate lilies. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Mitlenatch’s seabirds
Mitlenatch is a protected area for nesting birds. Over a thousand pairs of glaucous-winged gulls nest here, arriving in April to pick out their breeding territory. Pelagic cormorants nest on the island’s steep cliff faces and narrow ledges. Double-crested cormorants, northwestern crows, pigeon guillemots, and black oystercatchers also rely on the island for safe nesting. My group took turns in a blind, where we watched a colony of gulls on a rock outcropping.
Birds at Mitlenatch Island Nature Reserve. / Photo by Andrea_44
Volunteer projects
The only people allowed to stay on Mitlenatch are volunteers with the Mitlenatch Island Stewardship Team (MIST). I met Heidi Tonn and Rodney Mitchell, who have volunteered for a week every summer for 30 years. The couple had five students with them during my visit.
“We do a whole bunch of different citizen science during our weeks here,” Tonn said. Volunteer stays coincide with the four-month-long seabird breeding season. “During that period of time, we’re here just to keep a presence, to keep it protected,” Tonn added. Volunteer activities include bird counts, beached bird studies, intertidal surveys, plant phenology, and removing invasive species.
The humble but much beloved volunteer cabin. / Photo by Teresa Bergen
Hiking is just like walking, right? The only differences are being out in nature and going up and down hills. While that’s basically true, there are some important factors hikers must consider. In contrast to venturing out for an urban stroll, navigating uneven terrain near wild plants and animals and far away from city services requires specialized equipment. When packing for hiking, here are the essentials you’ll need.
This hiking gear list will help prepare beginners and refresh experienced hikers. And if you’re planning anything more than a simple trail walk, explore these safety tips and emergency preparedness essentials. Happy trails!
Is your beloved grad looking a bit green from all that time in classrooms? Are they wearing reading glasses more than sunglasses? Brow still furrowed from final exam anxiety? Maybe it’s time to step away from the textbooks and play outside.
If you have a new graduate in your life who yearns for some post-education adventure, consider buying a gift that sets them free from intellectual duties. There will be plenty of time for career development or graduate school later. This summer is a time to have fun on the water or in the mountains. After all, they’ve earned it.
