- If you’re packing more than 25 pounds of gear, on any of our Grand Canyon river trips, you’re way over-packed. WAY. You just don’t need (or want) that much stuff. Trust us.
- If you’re on one of our 7-day Motor trips, you’ll be charged an excess baggage fee when you board the charter plane.
- Everyone helps load bags onto the boats each morning and unload bags from the boats each evening. If you’ve got the heaviest, hugest bag in the group, your fellow river rats will start to crack jokes about all the rocks and dead bodies in your duffel bag.
Anyhow, back to the size guidelines. We suggest you bring a duffel bag (also known as a gym bag) that’s about 12 inches tall, 12 inches wide, and 24 inches long. No big deal at all if those aren’t the exact measurements of your bag. What is important is that your bag is soft-sided, also known as super squishable. That’s because we’re going to issue you with a dry bag as soon as you arrive at our boats. The dry bags are big, but they usually have your sleep kit already in them (that’s your sleeping bag, pillow, sheet and ground tarp) and your bag has to fit in there on top of the sleep kit. If you have a huge, rigid bag, you’re going to have a really hard time fitting it in the dry bag.
Another little piece of helpful information: you seal the dry bag by holding the flaps together and rolling them down; the more rolls you get in your dry bag, the drier its contents stay. So, if your stuff is trying to burst out of the dry bag and you only manage to get maybe one roll in it … your stuff is probably going to be damp. The more rolls, the better.
So! Soft-sided. Not any bigger than you need. Remember, we provide just about everything you might want on our Colorado River trips — you just show up with your clothes, your sunscreen and camera, and an open heart. The canyon and the river provide the adventure and the wonder, and we provide the camping and rafting gear.
If you have more questions about any of this, or want to run your duffel bag size by us, give us a call!