One Day Grand Canyon Rafting Trips

This write-up highlights 1 day Grand Canyon rafting excursions at the South Rim of the National Park. It also includes a website link where readers can buy these tours at a discount.

I always assumed that when I wanted to go rafting the Grand Canyon that I'd would need to join a two-week mega-adventure. Well, that's simply not the case. There are plenty of day trips to choose from and honestly they're very gratifying and incredibly fun.

The most well-liked one day rafting tours are at the South Rim inside the National Park. These are all-day trips and are accessible to all including kids 4 years of age and older. Options include taking a plane or bus ride to Page, AZ, where you can board your pontoon raft at the base of fabulous Glen Canyon Dam.

The bus version of this trip is less expensive than the plane one. Both start out from Grand Canyon Village or from Grand Canyon Airport. The route to Page is quite interesting. You go along the South Rim to the East Rim before heading north past the Navajo Indian Reservation and the Painted Desert.

The bus package takes you straight to the Colorado River. The plane trip incorporates a Jeep side-trip to Antelope Canyon, an amazing landscape of unique, pastel-colored rock formations. To go to the banks of the river, you will need to drive through a two-mile access tunnel.

These pontoon rafts are enormous and can seat up to 19 people. They're equipped with an outboard motor and can virtually handle any kind of water conditions. Nevertheless, this is a smooth-water float tour, which means there are no rapids.

The first major highlight is Horseshoe Bend, an incredible curve in the river that's distinguished by bright orange sandstone and turquoise blue waters. This area has been photographed extensively and is known worldwide for its natural contrasts.

This one day float excursion includes pulling out on a beach and taking a simple stroll to a cliff wall that's been imprinted with petroglyphs, an indication that ancient peoples settled and flourished in this area millennia ago. Many trips pause here for lunch.

The entire smooth-water rafting trip is 15 miles and ends at Lee's Ferry. Only an historic fort and an abandoned trading post still stand. There exists a load of activity here, however, as it's here where all of the big, commercial white water rafting trips commence.

You'll get on a climate-controlled luxury coach for the journey back to your accommodations on the South Rim. Keep your eyes peeled on the return as you will be treated to an amazing canyon sunset, which, for me, is the ideal bookend to this extraordinary journey.

There are many things to do at the Grand Canyon. However I think one of the best day trips is the one day smooth-water rafting tour, particularly when you combine it with a plane flight to the Glen Canyon Dam. The sense of having achieved something special pervades you after you complete this experience. And it should. You've basically seen the canyon from top to bottom, and that's something few individuals can claim.

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