Update for anyone that was waiting to hear how my Grand Canyon trip turned out (looking at you, @Ziacat 
). It was fantastic. Epic. I highly recommend a rafting trip for anyone that loves the Grand Canyon, National Parks, or the southwest, as most of us here do. My only disappointment was that I wasn’t able to raft the entire canyon. I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to finish it another time.
We flew to Flagstaff which was a smaller airport than I realized but really pleasant to get in and out of. We spent the next day in Flagstaff and went to the Museum of Northern Arizona which I hadn’t been to before and definitely enjoyed. I thought they did a really nice job with the Native galleries and letting the tribes tell their own stories. That night we had an orientation for the rafting trip at our hotel, and the next morning we met in the lobby bright and early for the bus ride to Lee’s Ferry. Luckily, as per Ziacat’s recommendation, the bus made a stop after Navajo bridge and we were able to walk back over it. About 2 seconds after I stepped on the bridge we saw a California Condor soar by below. At that point I didn’t realize how rare or special of a sighting that was but could kind of tell that people around were making a big deal of it. We didn’t see any more the rest of the trip and I now know they were brought back from the brink of extinction by a controversial captive breeding program. And we did see some rafts float by, as Zia also said, and it was wild to then look back at the bridge a few hours later from below in a raft having switched spots.
Rafting was amazing. We were on the river 5 days and covered 89 miles from Lee’s Ferry to Phantom Ranch. The rapids were not constant, rather there were long stretches of placid water broken up by intermittent rapids, often where side canyons come in. The rapids seemed a little different to me than rapids on east coast rivers I’ve done before and the Rio Grande—more like big waves and less churning around visible rocks? They were fun though. @Bmpdvm you wanted to know which ones I liked best and I don’t even remember the names of most of them. But two that made an impression were Hahn’s, which I think is the biggest one on the half of the river we covered, and the Roaring Twenties, where we almost flipped in the paddle boat (luckily we never flipped or went for any unplanned swims). Our trip consisted of 4 oar rafts, one all paddle boat, and one hard sided dory.
My favorite part was exploring the canyon itself, as well as the side canyons. One highlight for me was the Little Colorado River, which is a shocking aqua blue due to calcium carbonate dissolved in the water and joins the Colorado from its own impressive deep walled side canyon. The Hopi call this sacred place Sipapu, their place of emergence into this world.
Another favorite place was Redwall Cavern, a huge open cave in the side of the canyon. My pictures can’t even capture the scale of it.
The hike out on Bright Angel trail was long and very uphill, but not terrible. I know what you mean about the switchbacks though, Zia. Fun to see the perspective change as you rise out of the canyon and finally get that classic view that you expect to see from the rim. When we got to the rim the first thing I did was use a flushing toilet, and the second thing was seek out food. The snack bar was closed! Which foiled my ability to eat a bucket of ice cream as Zia recommended. But we got a table at the tavern in Bright Angel Lodge for lunch and I got a dessert that included ice cream, so it all worked out.
We spent two nights at El Tovar and the next day on the rim hitting many of the overlooks, and did some walking on the rim trail, also as recommended by Zia. My original plan had been to go to Desert Watchtower that day, but we didn’t have a car and I hadn’t appreciated just how far it is and the fact that the shuttles don’t run there. Of course the views from the rim were incredible, but I also felt a little down that day, missing the rest of our crew and wondering what adventures we were missing out on in the canyon. (The trip does the whole canyon; some guests hike out halfway through and are replaced by hikers in for the second half). It also was a bit of a shock to the system to be among the crowds on the rim after the isolation of the canyon.
The next day we got a shuttle back to Flag which took us to the airport where we rented a car for the last day and a half. The next day with the car we really crammed a lot in. We drove to Desert Watchtower in the morning and were among the first groups to get in. On the way back we first made a quick stop at the Little Colorado River Overlook, then went to the Cameron Trading post. The overlook we stopped at was free and before the Navajo Nation Park that you have to pay like $8 to get into; I had forgotten about that recommendation and didn’t know the park was coming up. Not sure if it would have been a better view or not. Cameron was fun and I saw your belt @TAH, but shockingly I didn’t buy anything there besides a Navajo taco. I made it through the whole trip without buying anything jewelry; nothing really spoke to me at Cameron or at Hopi House or MNA. I only bought one piece of Native art on the trip; this little angel Christmas ornament from the gift shop at Maswik Lodge.
Once we were back in Flag we went to Walnut Canyon which was really cool. Unfortunately we never made it to Wupatki and Sunset Crater—next time. And then that night we went to Lowell Observatory and were able to look through telescopes at planets, stars and moons in the night sky. The sky and stars were amazing at the rim as you guys said and also in Flag which is a dark sky certified city, but best of all in the canyon.
Thanks to everyone here for the recommendations, and if you ever get a chance or are thinking about a GC rafting trip, you should do it!
Wupatki and Sunset don’t really require hiking; we’ve been to both many times, and enjoy them so much that we’re still going to go back this summer (one entry fee covers both).
As soon as I saw your post, I was wishful of a looonnnggg one, and at the end, I found myself scrolling for more. 
). Interesting how the river changes season to season. I don’t recall the Roaring 20’s, but after an intense monsoon season and flash floods, rafts can come around a corner and discover a new rapid that wasn’t there last year.
Anyway, as previously stated the river changes season after season.
