Phannie

Phannie
Photo taken near Monument Valley, Utah

Friday, August 4, 2017

Rafting for Geezers on the Snake River

At KOA Campground, Salt Lake City, Utah...

After leaving the Yellowstone area, we made a brief stop at Jackson, Wyoming to fulfill (sort of) another bucket list item: Rafting on the Snake River. Our relatively short drive to Jackson was beautiful, of course--there were so many scenic turnouts where you could view sights like this one of the Palisades Reservoir on highway 26:



 Like almost everywhere else we've been since we began this trip out west, we couldn't find an RV space for more than a couple of nights so, being allowed only two nights at Jackson, we had only one day to do the raft trip. Our discounted nightly fee at the Virginian Lodge RV Park was over a hundred bucks a night, so we nearly choked on that. With that in mind, I'm not exactly unhappy that they kicked us out after two nights. Of course, Jackson is a beautiful and popular tourist destination, and they need to make their money during the short summer season, I guess. Everything here, including restaurant meals, was very expensive. Speaking of that, the Thai Plate restaurant in Jackson was very good but pricey!

We had basically two choices in terms of the kind of rafting we could do: The scenic raft tour with almost no rapids or the whitewater version where, of course, one comes close to drowning! Mindful of our age and physical limitations, we chose the scenic "geezer" trip, as the title of this post indicates. We met the raft guide, Arvin, a pleasant but uneffusive young fellow, at Moose Village, about 12 miles north of Jackson. We boarded the raft along with eight other folks, including a family with three kids who were quite entertaining during the trip. Here's the raft being backed into the river:



I guess this is my Indiana Jones impression, sitting here with a "PFD" (a personal flotation device, as the guide called it) installed. I wasn't sure why he couldn't have just called it a life jacket.




Arvin, our guide, skillfully navigated the river which, at this point, had almost no rapids although the water was surprisingly swift:


Under way, we were immediately engaged by the glorious Grand Tetons passing by in the distance. The skies were clear, except from some haze from forest fires, and the temperature on the water was in the high seventies. Just about perfect conditions, we thought.



While we certainly enjoyed the scenic two-hour, ten-mile ride down the river, we found the water a bit more tame than we expected. I can see that the whitewater experience would be a great deal more exciting, and I would recommend that over this geezer trip unless you're too young or too old and clumsy, the latter of which describes us most closely. 

Rafting is easily the most popular attraction at Jackson. There are rafting companies everywhere, and we thought this was a cute display on the roof of one of those businesses. 



Next stop--Salt Lake City; stick around!

Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; please forgive me if I don't appreciate it enough each day.


I would rather own little and see the world than to own the world and see little of it.  
--Alexander Sattler

13 comments:

  1. Mike, I don't know how long you will be in Salt Lake but if you have time, we are not that far from you. Maybe we could get together for lunch? My email address is on our blog, sorry I couldn't find yours.
    Thanks, Ray Warner

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, Ray! I noticed your email, and I will be replying via that medium. Thanks for your comment!

      Delete
  2. That sounds like our speed of rafting down the river and fun experience I am sure.
    Ray and Cindy are supper people, we have met up with them a fe times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, there was a time when we would have happily done the whitewater thing, but I think we'll let the younger folks do that now.

      Delete
  3. Last time I went rafting on Lower Deschutes I fell OUT at Boxcar!!! That was quite the experience.... they were able to catch up to me and get me back INTO the raft b4 the next rapid... have had no desire to go again. hahahaha
    Glad you had a good time!! that is a wonderful part of our world!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great Scott, what an experience! I'm pretty sure we made the right choice.

      Delete
  4. Looks like a good trip:) We did the the jetboat trip on the Snake river into the canyon, also a great trip that was over six hours.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think we probably did the right trip, given certain limitations that we have. But we probably should have done the whitewater thing when we were a good bit younger. That's the problem when you wait to do something you want to do: You have regrets--something of which (thankfully) we have few.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Geezer or not, I prefer the calmer waters. That is just me, Bill would prefer the whitewaters I'm sure, especially younger. :) Glad you had a nice time.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, Patsy! It was a good time, but we have found that every day gives us a good time in this lifestyle. Thanks for commenting!

    ReplyDelete
  8. We had a summer like you are having trouble finding campgrounds so we now make reservations for Memorial Day until October.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike, don't know why but 'Phannie and Mae' isn't showing up on our reading list anymore. Sometime I forget to look at Google+ so sometimes fall a little behind.

      Delete
  9. aii yaii yaii. . .that price per night at the RV Park is a little ouchy. .yikes! I hated paying $67 in Las Vegas a few years ago. . .it's probably up to that by now.

    Glad you enjoyed your rafting trip. . .

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate comments and read every one of them. If your Blogger settings allow, I will happily respond.