Subject: Post-2026 Operational Guidelines Draft EIS                                   February 18, 2026 Comments by Grand Canyon Private Boaters’ Association     Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association (GCPBA) is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. Established in 1996, we advocate for the non-commercial river enthusiast to have the opportunity to experience a float trip through the......

February 9, 2026   Hello everyone,   Today’s topic is Reclamation’s draft Environmental Impact Statement for post 2026 Operations The draft consists of 4 chapters, 15 supporting appendices and 19 technical appendices.   You can go to their website to have a look.  Be forewarned – it’s not an easy read.......

SOLO #11 – Grand Canyon – 2025 Lee’s Ferry to Pearce Ferry – 280 river miles Sept. 2 Launch – Sept. 22 Takeout   Running the river solo through Grand Canyon is peak life adventure on the razor edge of survivability. It’s only been done by a few throughout history.......

Richard Martin (Ricardo, Richard, Ric) died October 7, 2025, at about 6 AM.  Richard was a founding member of the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association whose mission included “an equal opportunity for all” to gain access to a river trip in Grand Canyon while protecting the resource. To this end,......

Welcome new members – a brief update follows:   Flyers   The Courtesy and GCPBA flyers have now been distributed to the four outfitters.  You can check out the Courtesy flyer on our website (newgcpba.org) under “Trip Connections and Info.”  You can find the GCPBA flyer under “About Us.”   ......

May 24, 2025 Newsletter USBR Virtual Meeting We participated in USBR’s May 22, 2025 virtual meeting for an update on activities – the following topics may be of interest: The administrative update noted a long list of personnel who either resigned or retired including Glen Canyon National Recreation Area’s superintendent. ......

May 5, 2025   Here are a couple of topics to update you on Board activities:                      Housekeeping   A revision to the Bylaws was unanimously approved.  The major change is an additional method for adding members to the Board, allowing a current member to recommend/nominate a person for consideration. ......

Hello                                                               Feb 14, 2025 Just a quick note regarding the current lottery;   Numbers The NPS news release indicated that......

River News Jan 3, 2025 We wanted to take a moment to update you on changes to the Regulations published end of December 2024 and GCPBA’s position on the proposed fee increase.   Definition of a Noncommercial River Trip   Per GCPBA’s request, the paragraph, which referred to equal sharing......

  Greetings fellow members                                                   Fall/Winter 2024 Newsletter   The GCPBA Board met with  Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Ed Keable and Steve Sullivan, chief of the Permits Office in Flagstaff on September 28, 2024.   We discussed the following topics with Ed and Steve – some are a continuation of topics......

Here is the June 10, 2024 newsletter  Topics include modifications to Glen Canyon Dam and assisting a former member whose permit was revoked at the time of launch.   2026 Post Operations   The US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) published a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare an Environmental Impact......

Our October 30, 2023 letter to the Secretary of the Interior has still not received a reply – even after an appeal by a Congressional representative  that the Secretary respond.  The letter recommended that the USBR convene a panel of experts to study the necessary modifications to Glen Canyon Dam......

The lack of foresight of the dam’s design has harmed the river corridor’s ecosystem.  Power generation, legislation, adaptive management and viable modifications  to restore the ecosystem to the greatest extent possible are discussed  in a paper entitled “What to do with Glen Canyon Dam?  An Engineer’s Perspective“

October 19, 2023 Dear members – here is an update on Board activities: Officers Erica Stones is our new Board member as a Member at Large.  A Kansas native and a former teacher of French, she is eager to participate with the other board members in representing your interests.  Welcome......

July 31, 2023   Hello Members   This note is to convey our recent conversation with the Permits’ Office regarding the Park moving the overnight backcountry reservations to Recreation.gov.  As some of you also hike the backcountry, we thought it worthwhile to look into this topic.  You can read the......

May 17, 2023 Hello Members   To all of you who have joined or renewed your membership, thank you!   Also, we want to acknowledge Chuck Thompson, John McLaughlin, the Arches Foundation and Keel-haulers Canoe Club for their donations.   Board member David Levine is back from Canyon and has started......

GCPBA continues monitoring the development of the Navajo Nation’s permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers to construct docks for commercial purposes just downstream from Lees Ferry. The latest communication from the Corps is provided HERE as well as the LETTER from the Corps to Navajo informing them that......

  In partnership with the Grand Canyon Trust, GCPBA  is delighted to share this video with you. 

February 13, 2023 Hello members – a brief update on a few of topics                                          Pumped Storage on the Little Colorado River, FERC Project #14994 The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reported on December 16, 2022 that the permittee, Pumped Hydro Storage LLC, requested that their preliminary permit be terminated.  It was terminated......

The USBR is considering modifications to Glen Canyon Dam to augment the current hydropower facility with low head hydro.  You can view the ppt presentation for a detailed description of the alternatives being considered

Hello fellow members                                                                                              ......

  Hello fellow members – here’s an update on GCPBA activities:                                   November 4, 2022   The Board met in Flagstaff during the latter part of September.  Discussions were held with the following:  Moenkopi, Ceiba, Canyon Reo; Amanda Podmore with GC Trust; Ed Keable, GC Superintendent; Steve Sullivan from the GC Permits Office; John......

                                                                July 8, 2022 Margaret L. Goodro, Superintendent Lake Mead National Recreation Area 601 Nevada Way Boulder City, NV 89005   Subject: Request to Remove Prohibition for Launching of Watercraft from Pearce Ferry   Dear Ms Goodro   Grand Canyon Private Boaters’ Association requests that the prohibition of private boaters launching from Pearce......

Thanks to all who have joined or renewed your membership.   Your support is vital as the Board keeps plugging away – here are the items we’re currently working on: Navajo Docks    This saga continues.  We have submitted additional FOIA requests for the latest correspondence between the Corps of Engineers, National Park Service......

Fatality on the Colorado River near Ledges Camp  GRAND CANYON, Ariz. —On Monday, April 4 at approximately 6:30 p.m., Grand Canyon National Park was alerted of an unresponsive river trip participant near Ledges Camp (river mile 152) along the Colorado River. Due to darkness, Grand Canyon National Park requested Arizona Department......

Inner Canyon seasonal water availability update  The water utilities crew has recently announced its tentative spring schedule for the inner canyon. This schedule may change due to weather or unanticipated maintenance to the TransCanyon Waterline. The following shows a current list of what water sources are on or off as of......

On Thursday, March 24 at approximately 11:18 a.m., Grand Canyon National Park was alerted of an emergency by a personal locator beacon from a non-commercial river trip near Hance Rapid on the Colorado River. The Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center then received a report that CPR was in progress.Mary Kelley,......

VRP finishes successful river patrol mission   The Division of Visitor and Resource Protection (VRP) recently concluded a 14-day Colorado River oar-powered patrol mission. Canyon law enforcement rangers including Lisa Hendy, Ryan McDonald-O’Lear, Dan Hovanec, and Hunter Hamm were joined by South Rim Patrol Ranger, Mike Pakes. The river mission was......

GCPBA, as part of its tracking and analysis of both commercial and private usage of the Colorado river corridor thru the Grand Canyon, has converted the tabular data provided by the NPS at https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/upload/Backcountry_and_River_ Use_Statistics_2019.pdf into plots by season for years starting in 2007 thru 2019. The data show an 12 year......

The Colorado River Basin History Symposium was held in Kanab, Utah from October 13th through the 17th, 2021. GCPBA was one of the symposium’s sponsors. Board members Helen Howard and Rich Turner attended. You can read Rich’s report here.

Part 1 announces the appointment of 2 new members to the Board as well as the Board’s discussion with Park Superintendent, Ed Keable. Part 2 discusses the possibility of Glen Canyon Dam not generating electricity and petitioning the Department of Interior to exercise the adaptive management option and cease fluctuating......

On July 14 at approximately 6:00 p.m., the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a report of two individuals missing and multiple parties injured after flash flood activity impacted Tatahatso Camp near River Mile 38 on the Colorado River. Grand Canyon Search and Rescue sent two paramedics to the scene......

GCPBA sent a May 25, 2021 letter to the Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District petitioning the suspension and subsequent revocation of the permit granting the Navajo Nation permission to construct boat docks 1 – 2 miles downstream from Lee’s Ferry. The Navajo’s stated purpose is to conduct river patrols......

  On April 26, 2021 at approximately 11:00 a.m. MST, the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center received a satellite phone report of a boating accident on the Colorado River near Kwagunt Rapid at river mile 56. A commercial river trip requested assistance with an overturned motorboat and reported boater injuries.......

GCPBA has received an alert from river runners of a steel cable sticking out from the left side river bank near the old Bat Cave at mile 267. Be very cautious when floating past here. Stay away from the left side! This is the note GCPBA received from Kyle P.:......

   I do not have to tell any of you about the disruptions that the Covid-19 Pandemic has caused to our lives and schedules.   Until June we were still discussing having our annual GCPBA meeting in Flagstaff the last weekend of September.  By July, the decision had been made to have......

The Colorado River through Grand Canyon will be open starting June 14th.  We will be able to use our Noncommercial River Permits. We have been in contact with the Grand Canyon River Permits Office for what river trip participants need to be aware of when river trips resume.  Below is......

On May 4, 2020, GCPBA President Richard Harter mailed a letter to Grand Canyon National Park which reviewed the 134 noncommercial river trips that were suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. They were scheduled to launch in March, April, May, and June of this year. There is a new announcement......

Precautions are being taken due to coronavirus (COVID-19). Confirmed cases in Grand Canyon National Park : 2 (confirmed on 4/24)  Grand Canyon National Park is extending the suspension of administrative, research, private and commercial river rafting trips through June 13, 2020, in order to comply with the local health guidance......

The GCPBA Board thought we would provide a little more background on the recent change in the Noncommercial River Trip Regulations issued by the Grand Canyon National Park River Permits Office, which made optional the throw cushion requirement.  (April 8, 2020, we reported on this here:  Grand Canyon Noncommercial River Trip......

While we have all been coping with the effects of the corona virus spreading across the country, including suspension of private river trips in Grand Canyon, GCPBA has delayed informing you about an important update to the Noncommercial River Trip Regulations issued by the Grand Canyon National Park River Permits......

Grand Canyon National Park has suspended all river rafting trips, including administrative, research, private and commercial trips, from March 24 through May 21.  The full text of the announcement is below. Permit holders of canceled trips received the following email from the River Permits Office: Permit holders with river trips scheduled......

Greetings to all of you.  We have a report for you regarding new docks proposed by the Navajo Nation. Martin Begaye, Department Director at Navajo Parks and Recreation, Window Rock, Arizona, applied for a permit with the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a dock on the south shore of......

Greetings to all of you.  GCPBA has two major topics to share with you, as separate emails, that we have been following and working on.  The first is a proposal by a company to build two dams on the Little Colorado River for electrical power generation.  The second one, regarding......

GCPBA held our meeting in Flagstaff October 5 & 6, 2019. All Board members running for reelection were reelected. Officers for the coming year are: President……………Richard HarterVice President….…John VrymoedSecretary……………Blakely LaCroixTreasurer……….……David LevineAt large members are:Helen HowardRich TurnerWally Rist. It was with deep regret that we accepted the resignation of Dave Mortensen......