Eating on the River

You’ve got your trip booked. You’ve shopped for gear. You’ve booked your transportation. Now all that’s left are questions about day to day river life. Things like: “How will I go to the bathroom?” and “What will I be eating on the river and how will I eat it?”

We have good news: Hatch meals are delicious. 

And more good news: We handle all the meal planning, so all you have to do is show up and eat!

 

Breakfast

Imagine waking up on the beach, to a voice shouting “COFFEEEEE” as the river runs by in the background. This is how every morning in Grand Canyon starts when you travel with Hatch. 

The coffee call is a good opportunity to get moving and get ready for the day. While you are getting dressed and packing up your gear, the guides will be hard at work cooking you a delicious breakfast. Breakfasts at Hatch consist of:

    – eggs made to order

    – 1 breakfast meat (sausage, bacon, or ham)

    – 1 side (bagels, pancakes, hashbrowns or English muffins)

    – cereal

    – fresh fruit

    – plus drinks (coffee, tea, milk, and juice)

Stock up on anything and everything you want to fuel you for the day ‘cause we bring a ton!

Last day breakfast:

Since you’ll be either hitting the trail or boarding a helicopter early on the last day of your trip, there isn’t time for a full breakfast. Instead, we offer a continental breakfast with packaged pastries and fruit. 

 

Lunch

Mid-day lunch stops usually take place on a sandy beach. Each day your guides set up a spread of build-your-own sandwich supplies. We offer a variety of breads and tortillas, sliced deli meats, sliced cheeses, tuna or chicken salad, hummus and other spreads, as well as fresh and pickled veggies and other toppings—everything you need to have a different sandwich every day of your excursion if you want!

The lunch table is also well-stocked with snack items like chips, cookies, candy, nuts, and trail mix, so you can snack to your heart’s content. 

A few quirks about lunch:

Guides eat first! While you’re enjoying course after course of sandwiches and cookies, they’ll be cleaning up the dishes they dirtied getting everything ready, so it only makes sense that they should get to fuel up first.

No cooking required. Instead of setting up a whole kitchen and taking up valuable time you could be using to explore the Grand Canyon, we like to make lunches quick and easy. That means nothing that requires cooking makes it onto our lunch menu. We still think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much variety there is!

No plates or napkins. Just as we don’t want to set up a kitchen to cook at lunch, we don’t want to spend all of our daylight washing dishes, so no plates. We also don’t want to create any more trash than we absolutely have to—especially if that trash could end up escaping to blow around the canyon—so no napkins. Don’t worry, if your appetite is bigger than your hands, you can return to the lunch table as many times as you want. (Just make sure to wash your hands each time you go back!)

 

Dinner – The Main Event

Dinners at Hatch consist of three courses, so eat as much as you want—just make sure to save room for dessert!

First come appetizers. These range from caprese salad bites to a spread of cheese, crackers, and pickled items to chips and guacamole, depending on what goes best with the main course. 

Entrees typically consist of:

    – a main protein (such as grilled steak or salmon, carnitas, or spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage)

    – a side salad

    – grilled or steamed vegetables 

    – a starch-based side such as potatoes, pasta, rice, or bread

Finally, dessert! Hatch is famous for our Dutch oven desserts—who knew you could bake a cake on a beach at the bottom of Grand Canyon?

If you’re a hot beverage in the evening kind of person, ask your guides about making some decaf coffee or herbal tea for after dinner.

 

Daytime Snacks and Drinks

Throughout each day, refill your water bottle from one of the always available coolers of water and Gatorade/lemonade. Staying hydrated and keeping your electrolyte levels up is important to having the best experience possible. (If you want other beverages, you can bring them yourself or order through Cliff Dwellers Lodge. They’ll be kept cool by dragging them in mesh bags through the river.)

You’ll also have access to a box of snacks filled with fresh fruit, trail mix, nuts, dried fruit, and other goodies. Don’t be shy about asking your guides if it’s a good time to grab a snack! 

 

Eating on the River When You Have Dietary Restrictions

If you require a special diet, the prospect of eating on the river may be a little daunting. The best way to ensure that you will have what you need is to have open, candid conversations with our reservations staff when you first book your trip. We are able to accommodate many dietary needs, but are limited by the unique environment in which our trips take place. Since we can’t just pop out to the store and pick something else up, we need to make sure we have what you need before the trip departs. 

Some things to keep in mind:

We aren’t able to prevent cross contamination. If you have a food allergy or sensitivity that can be triggered by food that touched the same cooking surface or serving utensil as your allergen, this may not be the trip for you.

We can often substitute types of food, but not specific brands. Because we operate out of a remote location and need food that can stay good for the duration of a multi-day trip, the foods we can source and include on our trips are limited. While we can certainly provide an alternative milk for a dairy free guest or a non-meat substitute for a vegetarian or vegan guest for example, we can’t honor requests for specific products or brands.

Your diet is your responsibility. The person who knows what your needs are best is you! We encourage any guest with dietary restrictions to talk with our office before the trip, read the labels of foods on the trip, and talk with the guides about how their foods are being prepared. 

If you want to know more about the types of foods you’ll be eating on the river or how we accommodate dietary restrictions, review our Sample Menu with Dietary Info. Choose the appropriate menu for your trip style:

• 7 Day Sample Menu for Motorized trips
• 12 Day Sample Menu for Hiking Focused or Oar Powered trips 

 

Our guests frequently report thoroughly enjoying the Hatch meals they had on the river. After all, when you’re camping on a remote beach at the bottom of a famously big canyon, nothing tastes better than a “homecooked” meal.