I have always wanted to raft the Colorado River. I've been on several other rivers in the Rocky Mountain area so adding the Colorado seemed like a worthy goal. Access to the river is limited so we hooked up with an outfitter for a full-day trip.
One of the surprising things about going to Utah was how many European tourists we encountered. I never see so many foreigners in Washington D.C.! I guess they, wisely, skip the city and head for what's unique about the U.S. of A. - the West. Our raft trip included a cadre of tourists from Poland. They weren't so great at English. But at the City Market, a pretty-great grocery store on the main drag in Moab we ran into all kinds of German and French visitors. How hard is to pick up a turkey sandwich from the delly or use the self-check-out. I thought the grocery was on a part with anything we have in Maryland, perhaps a little light on the prepared entrees and heavier on the grab and go things, but Moab is kind of a grab and go place. So I was proud to be an American and showcase a fine grocery to Europeans.
Back to the raft trip -
This is a little rapid narrow spot. There weren't a lot of rocks protruding to get caught on, but it did require some paddling to get through.
More than once I got a mouthful of water splashed up on me, but we never did tip over.
Lunch was included in our trip. We pulled over at the Red Cliffs Inn. That was a resort we'd considered staying at but they'd been full so we hadn't. It was just as well as it was quite a ways outside of Moab proper. Nevertheless they had an excellent BBQ lunch! The woman in the picture joined us at the halfway mark, and was from Maryland also!
