Hiking the Grand Canyon: Hindsight

[Irulan]

Irulan- that's SOOOO exciting!!! Your own boats? 15 years on the wait list?? WOW!

Here's the deal. If you have $5000 in your pocket you could go with an outfitter tomorrow. If you are a person with your own raft, you go into a lottery draw for a permit. 20% or so of launches are allotted to private boaters, the remaining are allotted to outfitters. Thank you Senator Hatch (owner of Hatch Expeditions) and the outfitter lobby in Utah. These are OUR national parks that we have the right to use as taxpaying public. By private boater, I mean anyone that owns their own equipment and wants to do the trip without an outfitter. Private boaters share all costs, and do not hire guides to run the trips for them.

The wait list was up to 22 years for a permit, and finally the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association was successful in their suits against the National Park Service ( and the outfitter lobby) to get more launches for private boaters. What this means is that there is a lottery now, and there are more launches for private boaters by shortening up the days you are allowed on the river, not by increasing the allotment. When the suit was completed, we were given the option to combine our permit with other folks to move us up the list. So, instead of a permit that belongs to us for 16 people, we are sharing the permit with two other permit holders, each us gets to bring 5 people except we get to bring 6 as the main organizer. Great system huh?

I may not have my numbers exactly correct, but I've got the concept right.
More info here if anyone cares.
http://www.kwagunt.net/gctrips.html