I usually assumed that if I needed to go rafting the Grand Canyon that I'd have to sign up for a two-week mega-tour. Well, that's simply not the case. There are many 1 day trips available and honestly they're very satisfying and incredibly fun.

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

The bus variation of this tour is less expensive than the plane one. Both start off 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 just before heading north past the Navajo Indian Reservation and the Painted Desert.

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

These pontoon rafts are massive and can seat up to 19 people. They are loaded with an outboard motor and can pretty much handle any sort of water conditions. That said, this is a smooth-water float tour, which means there won't be any rapids.

The first major landmark is Horseshoe Bend, a gorgeous curve in the Colorado River that is distinguished by bright orange sandstone and turquoise blue waters. This area has been photographed extensively and is known around the world for its natural contrasts.

This 1 day float tour includes pulling out on a beach and taking an easy stroll to a cliff wall that has been imprinted with petroglyphs, an indication that ancient peoples settled and thrived in this region millennia ago. Many visits stop here for lunch.

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

You'll get on a climate-controlled luxury motor coach for the ride back to your accommodations on the South Rim. Look out on the return as you will be treated to an amazing canyon sunset, which, in my view, is the ideal bookend to this extraordinary journey.

There are many things to do at the Grand Canyon. But I think one of the best day trips is the 1 day smooth-water rafting tour, particularly when you bundle it with an airplane ride to the Glen Canyon Dam. The sense of having accomplished something special pervades you when you finish this experience. And it should. You've literally seen the canyon from top to bottom, and that is something few individuals can claim.