We have four guiding principles we ask our guides, our reservationists, our drivers, our managers, our orientation hostesses and our warehouse crew to use as touchstones. The first two are the easiest to train on: competency and caring. The other two principles are what we believe sets us apart as a company and why we are the best: instilling a sense of wonder and crafting a participatory experience.

Competency

Competency looks different for each employee, but for guides it includes (among other things) preparedness for and prevention of emergency situations, safety education, a strong work ethic and dependability, boating abilities, ability to share (or to look up) information regarding the Grand Canyon, camp skills such as cooking and sanitizing, leadership skills, and communication with each other and with guests.

Caring

Likewise, caring looks different in every department, but it’s about the customer service, team work, and stewardship—taking that little extra effort to go above and beyond guest expectations, honing interpersonal skills, and taking care of Grand Canyon and the world beyond.

Participatory Experience

We fundamentally believe that all of us get more out of a Grand Canyon experience when it’s a participatory one. There’s more investment in the team, and it’s more fun. It creates a stronger sense of community that leads to a better trip for all and as individual. Whatever your cup of tea—trying your hand at the oars, doing a dish now and then, learning how the water filter works—we think you’ll like our style.

Sense of Wonder

It is important to us that all of our staff, but especially our guides, invite a sense of wonder in our guests. The magic of the Grand Canyon is in dichotomies: in the small of this tiny wildflower, this majestic wave, in the huge of this panoramic vista, this interwoven ecology, this sometimes raging and sometimes infinitely tranquil river. A sense of wonder in this place can invite a sense of wonder in our world and in ourselves, that we accomplished a hike or a rapid or a river trip. A sense of wonder can be found in the opportunities for solitude and in the pushing of the envelope on a guided excursion. A sense of wonder can be invited in so many ways—in a training swim, in a new relationship, in the story of an early explorer. What will awake your sense of wonder?