Achim Gottwald
commercial passenger

   The place- incredible. The trip- never long enough. The experience- unique. Everybody should have it. Everybody? That’s a lot of people in paradise! No, access to paradise has to be limited if you don’t want to turn it into another Disneyland. Or look at what the Europeans did to the Alps- that’s the large amusement park between Munich and Milan. Don’t let it happen to the Canyon. Here it cannot be merely a matter of supply and demand, of recreation and business, of fast fun and gourmet food. We are not talking about “the management of whitewater recreation” here- at least I hope we aren’t. This is about the Grand Canyon. Let’s remember this. Always. And the Canyon is a fragile place.

   So:

   -Cut down on user days- for everybody. Reduce them by 50,000 days over the next 5 years.

   -Force outfitters to do longer trips.

   -Change the wait-list system for private boaters to a lottery system (apply in 1995 for the 1996 season only). Wait lists of 8 years or more are absurd.

   Commercial trips are expensive, true. But that’s all right if they offer an unhurried trip with plenty of time to explore all those magic places such as Nankoweap, Stone, Whispering Springs or Matkat, a trip with time to dream, to marvel and to wonder. When I come to the Canyon I expect to get away from the crowds. I don’t want room service and champagne to wash down the caviar. After all, this is still a wilderness trip.

   Good outfitters have good guides who care about the Canyon and who care about people. They teach us about those ancient rocks, about delicate plants and tiny critters, about early explorers and environmental problems. They are a guarantee for a “quality experience” for everybody- now and in the future. But people have to understand why each river trip is different. Tell them in the Boatman’s Quarterly, in outfitters’ sales brochures and in NPS leaflets. It’s a privilege to be one of the Chosen Few.

Achim Gottwald
private boater

   More than a year ago I was asked to write a statement for "Perspectives II: “Grand Canyon in the year 2000.” I wrote this from my point of view as a commercial passenger. Perspectives II was never published, and I am glad about that, because two things have happened since then that have changed my perspective considerably: I read the interview with Rod Nash, and I rowed a raft on a private trip. Our little group consisted mainly of veteran Grand Canyon boatmen. Well, they were the boatmen, and I was the veteran, but they kept telling me that Rudi started running rivers when he was 48, and I shouldn't worry. I was going to be fine. I didn't do too badly. "It's still a golden trip- swimmers don't count,” Jeff assured me after I had left the raft for a minute in Granite. And indeed, I made it without flipping, wrapping or wrecking. Yes, they let me run Kwagunt. They let me run Crystal. I ran everything from Badger to Lava, and now I am back home, exhilarated and confused. Because I read the Nash interview again, and it all makes sense, and at the same time it doesn't. For me, of course, everything has changed. I cannot imagine going down the river again and watching somebody else row. Which means I will have to get my name on the wait list and expect to get a permit by the year 2004, if I'm lucky. Ridiculous! In the meantime, I will encourage other people to go on a commercial Grand Canyon trip. I know many people who should have this experience, because it is unique, and I am sure it will change them. I will send them on an oar trip, preferably with dories, because they are more beautiful and much more fun to ride in. I don't like motor trips because the rigs are big, noisy and smelly, and they go way too fast for me. Now don't get me wrong: on our trip I loved the motors, because they come and go so quickly, and if you do run into them at "honeypots" like Deer Creek or Havasu, the guides are like all the boatmen I have met over the years: simpatico, friendly and helpful. Like Michael Geanious, who not only put up with that boisterous group of five-year-olds (us) that invaded Redwall Cavern while his group was still there, but who offered ice for our sweating cooler or anything else we might need. And no, I am not influenced by the fact that halfway through our trip we got a bag of pork chops, which may not seem much to you, but then you probably never sent only vegetarians to do the shopping. What I want to say is that relations between privates and commercials, oars and motors were excellent at all times. And the Canyon never felt crowded. But solitude? Not with the omnipresent, penetrating, constant drone of those ugly little planes. I wrote to the FAA at once... I guess I got a little side-tracked here.

   So let me finish by saying that... whatever happens in the future- there should be opportunities for visitors from all walks of life, for “Als and Daves,” for those who want to be guided or unguided, for those who just want to ride and those who want to row. But there has to be a limit on numbers. The low-impact, environment-friendly wilderness experience is impossible if everybody goes. It will become that dreadful resort experience Rod was talking about. Please don't let that happen. Not in the Grand Canyon. See you downstream.