For many rafters, it doesn’t get any better than a
float trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
Would-be boaters often spend as long as 10 years waiting for one of
200 private launch dates granted each year.
A
new fee increase at Grand Canyon National Park may give them second
thoughts: an 18-day private Grand Canyon trip for 16 people, which
used to cost $159 in park fees, now tops $1,900.
When the fees take effect in February, it will
cost $100 to get on the waiting list, $25 annually to stay on the
waiting list and $200 to launch. Rafters must also pay a park-wide
$10 entrance fee (up from $4) and a new $4 per night impact fee. It
used to cost only $25 to join the waiting list and $50 to
launch.
Canyon District Ranger Jim Northup
describes rafting the Colorado River as a special use that the park
must pay for. He says the new increases seem high because the Park
Service should have raised rates earlier. “The private boaters have
had the best deal for years,” says Northup.
Private rafters and commercial boaters alike agree on the need to
protect and maintain the river, even with funds out of their own
pockets. But many are upset over the agency’s failure to submit a
fee increase proposal to the public. Instead, the agency sent
approximately 6,500 people on the waiting list a letter describing
the new fees and warning of a March 31 deadline for paying the $25
fee to stay on the list.
Will boaters pay? Some
predict that the stiff price hikes will thin out duplications on
the waiting list. Private rafter Jeff Stines, who has floated over
600 miles on rivers all over the Southwest, has been waiting since
1991 for a chance at the Grand. He says he’s upset about having to
pay more but will wait, and pay, and even pay to wait, for his
shot.
“All my friends have
done the Grand,” he says. “It hasn’t really worked out for me.”
” Sarah
Dry
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Grand Canyon rafting fees inflate.
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