Originally Posted By TipsEZ
and the tarp tent idea is something that I could do myself but the wife seems to get bitten by anything within a few miles.
A true tarptent is fully enclosed so bugs aren't an issue. I have the Lunar Duo from Six Moon Designs for example.

My son and I were in the canyon (from North Rim) in late June. I don't recall bugs being an issue so I would just use a true tarp to save weight over that big honking tent of your's. I had quickly made a new one that was about 7 ounces I think to use mostly for shade if needed and it worked great. We also did not take our sleeping bags or cooking gear (who wants a hot meal when it's hot?). Did the same doing Zion Narrows. We did carry 4 L of water down because the pipe was busted again and I didn't want to waste time or chemicals to treat more water than necessary (and downhill is easy). You can view our trip reports at my YT channel.

Another thing that may be helpful is my gear paper