It begins at the Hacienda Hotel just outside Boulder City, a few miles from Hoover Dam. Participants are bussed from there to the launch area just below the dam using the old porter road. There were 12 of us on this trip. The raft can easily hold twice that number so it was easy to move around. The guide was very knowledgeable concerning the history of the area, the geology, the flora and fauna, and was quite humorous as well. He has a very good eye, spotting Big Horn Sheep twice where I never would have. We also saw a variety of birds: Red Head and Mallard ducks, Coots, gulls, a Peregrine Falcon, a Golden Eagle, several Great Blue Herons and Cormorants. Not too far from the end our 12 mile journey, while exploring a cave on the Arizona side of the river bank, we saw a beaver. Our guide said that was first time he had ever seen one on the river. They were fairly common before the dam was built, but not now.

Some of the pictures below have additional information. Click the thumbnails to see a larger version of each.