A big, white shuttle bus lumbers down the road to Lees Ferry, the starting point for river trips down the Grand Canyon.
The bus came to the ferry all the way from Flagstaff, packed with clients who are about to float down the Colorado River.
But the journey here is a rising cost for commercial rafting companies like Arizona Raft Adventures, or AzRA, says Dennis Smoldt, its general manager.
That’s because gas prices have surged due to the war with Iran, causing problems for consumers and companies alike.
“We really don't have the luxury of being reactive in the moment and increasing costs when our costs go up,” says Smoldt.
Commercial companies like AzRA lead guided trips down the river, many of which involve motorboats or shuttle buses that use gas.
AzRA sells some trips years in advance, so they can’t raise prices now that the cost of gas is high.
“We can't change that, so we just have to absorb it,” he says.
Gas prices are over $1 higher now in Arizona than they were a year ago. Nationally, they’ve fallen about 40 cents a gallon from a month ago, according to AAA.
But the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows consumers are still concerned about rising gas costs. According to the survey, 45% of Americans say they don't plan on taking a summer vacation this year, with about half of those people citing cost as the main reason.
Flights, groceries and gas are all more expensive, and nobody is immune, not even river rafters bobbing down the river in the Grand Canyon.
Pricier fuel joins a list of rising costs for AzRA, which Smoldt says include more expensive liability insurance and food.
Hundreds of miles away in a boathouse in Flagstaff, Scott Davis of Ceiba Adventures, a rafting outfitter who rents boats for private trips, shares AzRA’s concerns.
“We've had to implement gas surcharges … for our shuttles,” says Davis. “It's a legitimate concern. It's not a good feeling whatsoever with that.”
Higher fuel costs have also posed problems for his employees, he explains.
“I just heard a couple of my employees yesterday — ‘It just cost me $80 to, you know, fill up my car. It's normally $60,’” Davis says.
He pointed to the high price of diesel fuel and the lengthy, rugged journeys his shuttles have to make to pick rafters up or drop them off.
“Our prices are based on $4 a gallon, and our trucks are big trucks that are not known for … good gas mileage,” Davis adds.
To cope, Ceiba Adventures has passed those costs on to clients as a surcharge, something Davis says he wishes he didn’t have to do.
His company will adapt, he says, but he has a problem with the fact that’s an issue in the first place.
“The reason for it just disturbs me to no end,” Davis says.
And it isn’t just rafting companies: Flagstaff residents who have their own boats are feeling the pressure, too.
That includes Harlan Taney, who says he’s about to leave for a packrafting trip at Blue Ridge Reservoir. Since Taney has his own boat and equipment, it keeps the price of river trips lower than renting from a company like Ceiba, he says. But even he is not immune to high gas prices.
“One of the beauties of having all the gear we need and choosing to go on these different rivers … and go boating, is it's a pretty cost-effective shoestring way to live,” says Taney. “You're really paying for the same food that you would eat at home. The cost of the trip is the gas it takes to get there, so when the cost or the increase of gas goes up exponentially, like it has been, that factors in pretty heavily.”
Back at Lees Ferry, the war with Iran clearly isn’t something Taney, Davis or Dennis Smoldt had any chance of predicting and preparing for.
“Nope, definitely not. [It] was not on our bingo card,” Smoldt says near the boat launch.
Analysts say even if the war ends, high gas prices aren’t likely to come down anytime soon.
