After almost 30 years as a professional in the outdoor industry, and as a Black man, I am used to seeing few people of color in the great outdoors. I had noticed the lack of diversity among the people we encountered from one end of the Grand Canyon to the other, but I wasn’t surprised. I joined his group of 13 friends and we filled five rubber boats on this trip of a lifetime. As a freelance journalist with a specialty in adventure travel, I had just enough of both, so I could drop everything when Moss won the permit lottery in 2016. In order to preserve the integrity of this natural resource and to minimize the impact of human beings camping along the river, only 29,000 people a year are allowed to make this journey (in contrast, nearly 6 million people annually visit the rim of the Grand Canyon).īy its nature, outdoor recreation requires a certain amount of disposable income and leisure time. population, a 2018 report published in The George Wright Forum indicates that we make up less than 2 percent of national park visitors.Įach year the National Park Service (NPS) issues permits by lottery for a limited number of Grand Canyon visitors to make the 226-mile river-rafting trip from the put-in at Lees Ferry to the take-out at Diamond Creek. There’s a statistical reason for this: Although Black Americans represent 13.4 percent of the U.S. “In 25 years, I think you’re the first African American I’ve ever seen down here.” “You know? I’ve made more than 40 commercial guiding trips through this place,” he said. After a thrilling day exploring limpid blue pools and towering waterfalls beneath the desert rim, we sat in beach chairs drinking ice-cold beer along the banks of the Colorado River. Halfway into our two-week paddling trip through the Grand Canyon, my longtime friend Jim Moss had a sudden realization.
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