j) Temperatures - It was hot during the day on our June 27-July 12 trip this year (2011), but we did not find that to be a problem. We got wet on the rafts and before leaving for hikes to keep cool. We cooled off in the creek several times on the way to Beaver Falls, and my son Ted and I took vinyl tubes on that hike and tubed back to the river in Havasu Creek. The side creeks were comfortable to swim in, even for extended periods of time. We used squirt guns to cool each other when we were in the rafts, and we used an umbrella on the raft when it wasn't windy and on shore when we stopped for lunch or got to camp early. Our $20 umbrella from Costco held up better than more expensive umbrellas that other’s had, but we were religious about taking it down when the wind started to blow and took it down for the rapids. We rented umbrella holders from PRO which were simple but very helpful.

k) Although I like doing a Grand Canyon river trip in the summer, I could see how the heat would be rather shocking to someone coming from a cooler climate. Most of our side hikes involved water, but we hiked up Cardenas canyon after a river guide told my son Wesley that there was a nice hanging gardens there. We didn't find the hanging gardens, but we did find a crude statue of a man (not the whole man, just the man parts). It was a hot hike, but was still enjoyable and interesting to see how hot, dry, and beautiful the desert can be. Wesley’s Tevas, however, delaminated in the heat on that hike.

l) My wife and I slept on the raft most of the nights and I was never uncomfortably hot when I went to bed, but some nights I never pulled out the sleeping bag and just covered up with a PFD or put on a fleece toward the end of the night. I never zipped my sleeping bag. Michelle brought a blanket instead of a sleeping bag and was warm enough on most nights but was always a little bit afraid that she would be too cold. For this reason, I would prefer to have a sleeping bag. It might be even better to have both if we had space available, which we did. We slept in the tent a few nights because of rain and that was warmer, but still tolerable. By the end of the trip, my preference was to sleep on the raft and cover up with a tarp if it rained rather than setting up the tent. We borrowed some Sotar pads from a friend for this trip, and they were very comfortable.