The most popular ways to experience the Grand Canyon are to hike through it or fly in on a helicopter tour from Las Vegas. Still, the activity that attracts the most dedicated adventurers is to travel along the Colorado River.
The most extensive rafting tour covers 225 miles from Lees Ferry on the Arizona-Utah border to Diamond Creek near Lake Mead at the park’s western end. Completing means committing to spending three weeks on a raft with night stops at remote campgrounds along the way.
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Rafting on the Colorado River is a popular way to see the Grand Canyon.
Want to raft through the Grand Canyon by boat? This is how you apply
Visitors who are not traveling on an organized commercial tour must have a permit. The specific number of slots is awarded by lottery and differs according to the specific year and month; the NPS is currently close to raising the permit price from $90 to $310.
Applying for such a permit is typically done more than a year in advance, and the National Park Service (NPS) announced that it will be issuing 450 permits for 12- to 25-day river trips for 2026. Those who want to undertake such an adventure will need to apply online before 12 p.m. Mountain Standard Time (2 p.m. Eastern Time) on Tuesday, February 25, 2025.
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“Each year in February, a main lottery is held to assign launch dates for river trips occurring the next year,” the government agency in charge of national parks writes. “Public notifications regarding main lotteries are made by both email and news release.”
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The application fee, which one has to pay regardless of whether one wins the lottery, is $25, while additional requirements are to be at least 18 years of age and be able to provide proof of whitewater experience before embarking.
The inflatable rafts, oars, and other equipment required to undertake such a big journey would also be the responsibility of the people taking on the journey; none of the above applies to commercial tours for which one would purchase a ticket with one of the dozens of operators.
‘River trips must be self-guided and technical whitewater experience is mandatory’
“Noncommercial river trips must be self-guided, and technical whitewater experience is mandatory on each trip,” the NPS clarified of the requirements. “Individuals may participate on a maximum of one recreational river trip per year (commercial or noncommercial).”
For those who do not win a slot during the first round, the NPS also holds several other lotteries later in the year after judging demand and the number of applicants left without a permit.
While the NPS is weighing the outcome of public consultation, past experience with fee-raising in parks shows that hikes are almost always implemented anyway. The crackdown on the number of people by raising the permit fee has been justified as necessary to “cover expenses related to protecting the Colorado River corridor, mitigating [e] impacts, and monitoring resources affected by recreational use.”
The $90 permit fee has remained unchanged since 1998. The NPS is also considering starting to charge $55 to sail the much shorter route between Diamond Creek and Pearce Ferry — at the moment, this is free but still requires a permit.
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