Quality's Connections 2026 River Adventure
This June 24–28, Quality Connections will host a five-day adaptive rafting adventure on the San Juan River, partnering with GoBig Adventures (GBA) and High Country Adaptive Sports (HCAS) to bring together a group of participants for an experience that is equal parts adventure, community, and personal growth.
The San Juan is a tributary of the Colorado River and one of the most accessible and beautiful multi-day river routes in the Southwest. The river runs shallow with mild rapids that make it well-suited for a diverse group of paddlers.
Each day, the group will cover roughly ten miles of river, passing through dramatic canyons, discovering ancient archaeological sites, and catching glimpses of wildlife; wild donkeys, bighorn sheep, and Navajo cattle often are spotted along this stretch.
At night, participants will camp on sandy beaches along the riverbank, sharing meals, swapping stories, and settling in under a sky full of stars.
Quality Connections will coordinate transportation from both Flagstaff and Page to get participants there and back. The experience is designed to be genuinely inclusive — not a modified version of adventure, but the real thing, with the right support in place to make it accessible to everyone.
For many participants, a trip like this is rare. The logistics alone — specialized equipment, adaptive supports, trained guides, remote camping — can make outdoor adventure feel out of reach. But that’s precisely the gap this trip is designed to close.
As David Grandon of GoBig Adventures puts it, participants are not clients being taken along for the ride. They are teammates. They are learning skills, pulling their weight, and contributing to a shared experience. “It creates a sense of independence and camaraderie,” Grandon says. “We are part of this mobile tribe floating down the river and helping each other out.” (Check out this video our Diverge Media Team made of last year’s trip.)
The cost for participants is $600, and Quality Connections is actively fundraising to bring that number down through scholarships and community support. When you make your donation, just indicate in the drop-down menu that your gift is for the river trip!
The Partners Behind the Trip — and Why Access Matters
A five-day river trip through canyon country doesn’t happen by accident.
It takes experienced guides, specialized equipment, carefully considered logistics, and a genuine commitment to making sure that people of all abilities are not just invited along, but truly supported to thrive.
For Quality Connections’ 2026 San Juan River trip, that work is being led by two outstanding nonprofit partners: High Country Adaptive Sports and GoBig Adventures. Together, these two organizations bring decades of experience in adaptive recreation, a shared belief in the power of the outdoors, and the practical know-how to make an adventure like this both safe and genuinely transformative.
GoBig Adventures was founded by David Grandon, who has been leading river trips along the San Juan for several years. His history with adaptive recreation goes back even further. When Grandon first moved to Flagstaff in 1996, he ran an agency serving individuals with disabilities, and his passion project – a program called The Scenic Route – offered multi-day cycling and hand-cycling trips that took participants to the Grand Canyon and on a round trip to Albuquerque.
“It was pretty groundbreaking at the time,” David recalled. “The struggles were real, but the triumphs were amazing.”
After more than a decade working in corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion, Grandon returned to his roots and launched GoBig Adventures with a clear mission: reduce barriers to outdoor recreation.
“The big picture is equity and access,” he says. “I love using nature as a vehicle for getting away from society and flying whatever flag you want to fly.”
On the San Juan trip, GoBig Adventures will serve as lead guide, drawing on Grandon’s deep knowledge of the river and his long experience working with participants across a range of cognitive, physical, and emotional abilities.
GoBig also holds events throughout the year that support scholarships for adaptive outdoor adventures. Their next one will be the Chalk-a-Lot Sidewalk Art Festival in Wheeler Park on July 3rd.
High Country Adaptive Sports has been expanding access to outdoor recreation for more than a decade. Its roots go back to offering adaptive skiing lessons at the Snowbowl in 2011.
What began as a winter program has grown significantly: HCAS now offers year-round programming including kayaking, mountain biking, and wilderness adventure experiences, said Truman Shoaff, the organization’s Programs Director.
For the San Juan trip, HCAS is helping with transportation to the river and contributing adaptive equipment, including a balloon-tire wheelchair designed specifically to move across sand without sinking.
Their involvement means that the physical terrain of the river, the beach camps, and the canyon itself will be genuinely navigable for everyone on the trip.
Both organizations are clear-eyed about something that’s easy to overlook: access to the outdoors isn’t a luxury. It’s a matter of equity, and the gap is significant.
“The lack of access is staggering,” says Truman. “Everyone needs recreation. It’s healing for everybody. It decreases depression, it increases confidence.” He points to the practical skills that come from paddling — following directions, decision-making, hand-eye coordination, upper body strength — alongside the deeper benefits of being in a wild place with a team of people working toward something together.
David frames it in similar terms. The goal, he says, has always been to ask people what they want to do, not to decide for them. “The point was not to tell them where we were going but to find out what they wanted to do,” he said.
Quality Connections is proud to work alongside HCAS and GoBig Adventures in building an experience that doesn’t ask participants to fit into a mold, but instead builds the experience around them.
To support this trip, visit qualityconnections.org/donate and select “Support San Juan River Trip.” Your gift helps ensure that the outdoors belongs to everyone.
