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Mark Grisham
Executive Director
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P.O. Box 22189
Flagstaff, AZ 86002
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MEMBERS
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Arizona Raft Adventures, Inc.
Founded
1965
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Arizona River
Runners, Inc.
Founded
1970
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Canyon
Expeditions, Inc.
Founded 1987
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Canyon
Explorations, Inc.
Founded 1987
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Canyoneers, Inc.
Founded 1936
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Colorado
River
and Trail Expeditions, Inc.
Founded 1971
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Diamond
River Adventures, Inc.
Founded 1979
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Grand
Canyon Discovery, Inc.
Founded
1965
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Grand
Canyon Dories
Founded 1969
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Grand
Canyon Expeditions Company
Founded 1964
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Hatch
River Expeditions, Inc.
Founded 1929
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Moki Mac River Expeditions, Inc.
Founded 1969
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O.A.R.S., Inc.
Founded 1969
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Outdoors
Unlimited
Founded 1969
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Tour West, Inc.
Founded 1969
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Western River Expeditions, Inc.
Founded 1958
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Wilderness
River Adventures
Founded 1961
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The
Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association is a nonprofit
trade group whose members include the sixteen professional
river outfitters who provide public whitewater rafting
trips in Grand Canyon National Park. All members are licensed
concessionaires of the National Park Service. Formed in
1996, GCROA works with the public and the media to provide
information and to answer questions about Grand Canyon
river running and related issues.
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MISSION:
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- To protect and conserve the environment and resources of the Grand Canyon with a particular emphasis on the Colorado River corridor;
- To provide a diverse range of the highest quality Grand Canyon river experiences for the professionally outfitted public;
- To support the people and places of the Grand Canyon river community.
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ROLE OF THE PROFESSIONAL RIVER OUTFITTER
GCROA’s members provide the public with safe access to one of the most unique and truly special backcountry river experiences available anywhere on Earth. Our ranks include many of the original river outfitting families who decades ago first pioneered what today we recognize as the sport of recreational river running. This is a rich and proud heritage in America’s great western tradition.
The Grand Canyon river experience is compelling and precious, yet highly individualistic. Our role is to provide a diverse means by which the American and international traveling publics can interact with the canyon and the river on deep and personal terms. No one goes away untouched. Even the unsuspecting are forever changed by the canyon’s sublime beauty, the river’s song, and the self-discovery that comes from new experiences in powerful places.
It is the goal of each GCROA member to interact responsibly with the Grand Canyon at all times. We employ a variety of resource protection strategies on an everyday basis. We take our partnership with the National Park Service very seriously and we are proud of our contribution. Through the services we provide, the National Park Service’s dual mission of providing public access to the Grand Canyon river experience while protecting the resource for future generations is fully realized.
GCROA’S ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES
The Grand Canyon Conservation Fund.
Established in 1988 and managed voluntarily by a group
of the Grand Canyon river outfitters, the Fund is a
nonprofit public charity. Each year, we award grants
to various conservation groups and those working to
provide access to backcountry outdoor experiences for
persons with disabilities. Since its inception, the
Fund has awarded more than $400,000 to groups like the
Grand Canyon Trust, American Rivers, and many others.
Donations come primarily from outfitted river trip passengers
who contribute $1 for each day of their river trip.
Cooperative
Resource Conservation Program. Each
year, GCROA’s members run, on a no cost basis,
four extended off-season river trips through the canyon
on which National Park Service field personnel and the
canyon’s professional river guides work together
on resource protection, visitor impact mitigation, and
other conservation related projects. A variety of good
works is accomplished and the joint exercise serves
to build an important spirit of collaboration and partnership.
Quiet,
Low Emission Motors. In
the summer of 1997, GCROA announced a voluntary transition
from the traditional two-stroke outboard motors used
in the canyon for decades to newly available four-stroke
models. The transition to these low emission, low noise
outboards represents a $1.5 million capital investment
program. We completed the transition on April 15th,
2001. Today, one hundred percent of the motorized rafts
operating in the Grand Canyon use the new motors. Four-strokes
offer a dramatic reduction in motor emissions, including
a ninety percent reduction in released hydrocarbons.
Additionally, the new motors are substantially less
noisy than the motors they replaced.
WHO TAKES OUTFITTED RIVER TRIPS?
Professionally outfitted river passengers come from all over the United States, from all over the world, and from all walks of life. Roughly eighty-five percent of our passengers are from the United States with fifteen percent coming from overseas. Ages range from young children to retirees in their sixties and seventies.
Each year, eighty percent – 15,000 people – will experience the canyon by river for the first and only time in their lives via the services we provide. All come to see the canyon from the river’s perspective and for the excitement of running North America’s premier stretch of backcountry whitewater.
TRIP STYLES AND OPTIONS
In response to public desire and deeply held personal philosophies developed through years of bringing the public down the river, GCROA’s members offer a diverse range of river trip styles and options. Trip lengths range from three to twenty-one days. Several different types of watercraft are employed.
These include larger more stable motorized boats that can hold an entire extended family and smaller, wetter and livelier rowed or paddled inflatable boats. There are also trips run in dories, hard-shelled boats of great beauty and grace. The average motorized trip lasts seven days. The average oar-powered trip takes fourteen days.
In addition to standard trip options (all of which feature extensive interpretation of the canyon’s natural and human history) there is also a host of specialized and unique trips available. Many focus on particular aspects of the canyon or on a single scientific discipline such as geology.
There are photography trips, those that emphasize extensive off-river hiking, and even a trip accompanied by a string quartet with performances taking place in natural side canyon amphitheaters and grottos. In short, a rich mix of river trip opportunities is available, allowing anyone to find just the right trip to match personal tastes, expectations, and skill level.
ACCESS PROGRAM FOR SPECIAL POPULATIONS
GCROA’s members are committed to assisting persons with disabilities experience the Grand Canyon by river. This goal is met through both mainstreaming and by special access trips on which passengers with even severe mobility impairments can be accommodated. Through the Grand Canyon Conservation Fund, scholarship assistance is also available.
FACTS AND FIGURES
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- Year of the first professionally outfitted Grand Canyon river trip: 1938
- Number of outfitted passengers each year: 19,000
- Number of licensed Grand Canyon river outfitters: 16
- Average Grand Canyon river outfitter term of service: 34 years
- Industry customer satisfaction rate: 99%
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