From Teresa Plowright,
Your Guide to Family Vacations.
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Rafting is a dynamic way to enjoy the Great Outdoors: get a great view of the scenery from the river, plus the thrills of whitewater. Pick the right Class of river and even young kids can enjoy the ride. (And if you want to opt out of the "whitewater" part -- rafting companies often offer an alternative calm river float.) river float.

Families can get themselves onto a river in several ways, from half-day outings to overnight adventures. Remember, rivers change with the time of year! Rivers that are fed by mountain snow-thaws may not offer much of a ride by late summer; also, conditions vary year to year depending on the winter's snowfall.

Typically, on a rafting trip, guests team up in large inflatable multi-person rafts, each with a guide; each crew is expected to paddle-- following the guide's instructions-- and that's a big part of the fun. A training talk precedes the trip; it's expected that all participants are novices. Kids are frequent participants; rafting companies have policies about what ages suit specific trips.

Class I is the easiest type of whitewater, (as in "Skill Level-None"), and difficulty increases up to Class VI. Class III has small waves, maybe a small drop; Class IV has medium waves, maybe rocks, maybe a drop -- lots of fun.

Sample Rafting Trips for Families

The simplest-- and most affordable -- way to sample whitewater rafting is to vacation in an area where the rafting's good, and sample a raft trip as a day (or half-day) outing. Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and West Virginia are good bets.

You can also try rafting on some tropical islands. For example, in the Dominican Republic, visitors can sample white-water rafting as a day trip: Lots of fun, and a great way to see more of the island than its beaches. Fall and winter are best, after the island's rainy season.

Notching up a step: if you want an overnight experience, many rafting outfitters offer overnight packages. A few ideas:

• West Virginia - a prime place for rafting

• Owl Rafting - on the Ottawa River in Ontario
• Independent Whitewater - in Colorado
• Wildwater Rafting - on the Pigeon River, near Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Another way to sample rafting is as part of a multi-day Family Adventure. For instance, a Yellowstone Family Adventure we sampled included a fun half-day rafting trip.

Another example: Abercrombie & Kent has a six-day Majestic Canyons River Rafting in Utah's Desolation Canyon. Trip includes a night at a Ranch Resort in Moab, scenic flight, and a visit to a ranch where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid holed up. Stay in large tents with room to stand (camp set-up and take-down is all handled); eat at linen-covered tables with candlelight. You can find other "river safaris" at the site.

O.A.R.S offers family adventures with focus on rafting but with other sports too. For example, O.A.R.S. has a Canyonlands trip, with rafting, hiking, biking, canyoneering, and exploring Arches & Canyonlands National Parks. Minimum age is 12 years; other family trips suit ages 7 and up, or 4 and up.

O.A.R.S. also has a Salmon River trip, in Idaho, with Class III rapids, in the second deepest gorge in North America. Setting is the millions of acres in Idaho's Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Kids might spot otters, big horn sheep, moose or black bear.

This brief profile is meant to introduce this resort to family vacationers; please note that -- part from a Yellowstone Family Adventure, and a rafting outing in the DR-- the writer has not experienced these trips.

*Always check web sites for updates!