Make It A Summer To Remember With An Exciting Whitewater Rafting Expedition In The Grand Canyon

With summer just weeks away, there’s little time left to make vacation plans and reservations. If you’re searching for someplace exciting, beautiful and memorable, look no further than the Grand Canyon. Hiking in the Grand Canyon, Colorado River rafting, or just sightseeing at historic sites and landmarks, the Canyon has everything. Encompassing more than 1,900 square miles, it was etched by the Colorado River over a period of time which has been estimated at anywhere from six million to more than twenty million years. Measured from the eastern to the western ends of the river, it runs nearly 300 miles, making it one of the most extensive and geologically intriguing phenomena of the natural world.

Individuals, families or groups can select from any number of pursuits while vacationing at the Grand Canyon. Sandy beaches and shallow ponds for the kids, hiking trails of differing degrees of difficulty, secret coves with hidden waterfalls and, most invigorating of all, whitewater rafting the Colorado River.

There are several kinds of watercraft available for exploring the river. Large motorized rafts are accessible through professional outfitters who also provide orientation and safety guidelines before debarking. These rafts are expressly built for cruising the rapids and hold up to 16 passengers, 2 team members, and a great quantity of supplies, which makes them the most favored boats on the river. Fast enough to travel the entire Colorado River in a week; they are the ideal choice for individuals with constrained vacation time. Visitors who want to travel the river at a more leisurely pace can choose smaller craft that are powered by paddle and carry only four or five passengers and a guide. These hand-operated watercraft take about 12 days to go from one end of the canyon to the other and make running the whitewater rapids a bit more exciting than do power boats. A visitor can expect to get drenched daily when aboard one of these smaller craft, but for many vacationers, that’s half the fun.

Besides these, catamarans and kayaks are also available through outfitters, and are often also used by experienced campers on non-commercial trips. In relation to these, anyone arranging a river rafting trip without the help of an outfitter must be aware that they require a permit which must be issued and paid for before arrival. These permits are stringently limited in quantity and are allocated through a lottery system at least 12 months upfront, so one would be well-advised not to set out on a Grand Canyon river rafting trip without first acquiring the correct papers.

After having done so, however, anyone whose vacation includes white water rafting and hiking in the Grand Canyon will have a summer to remember forever.

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