Experience Grand Canyon with Your Family

A Hatch trip is the perfect way to have fun together!

Photo Credit: Kristen McIlroy

Hatch River Trips Are Fantastic for Families

Are you aching to get away from your devices and spend some quality time with your loved ones?

There’s no better way than by traveling to one of the few place in the world still remote enough to not get cell service. At the bottom of Grand Canyon, you and your family can truly connect in one of the most beautiful settings in the world.

Photo Credit: Diane Dewey
Photo Credit: Mike and Robin Gard

Engaging for All Ages

Hang on tight through the Colorado River’s famous rapids, splash and swim in hidden creeks and swimming holes, camp and play on sandy beaches along the river side, and keep your eyes open for all kinds of canyon wildlife. Your guides will be filled with fun facts about Grand Canyon history, geology, wildlife, and more, so you’ll learn a lot along the way, too.

Everyone on a Hatch trip pitches in when it comes to setting up camp, so make sure any little hands come prepared to help. Our guides are excellent at finding ways to connect with your kids and keep them engaged throughout the trip. You can also help prepare younger kids by doing some research before you go. If they already know who John Wesley Powell is or what kind of animals to look for, they’ll be that much more excited when those things come up during your adventure.

The memories you form on this vacation will truly last a lifetime. At least a few times a year, a guest tells us that they did this trip with their own family as a child and now they can’t wait to share the experience with their kids.

Be Prepared

You’ll want to keep a few things in mind before you commit to booking a Hatch trip for your family. We can accommodate kids as young as 8 on motorized trips and as young as 12 on oar powered trips, and it helps if your kids are good listeners who enjoy going on adventures in the outdoors. If you’re considering an upper canyon or lower canyon trip, we don’t recommend it unless your kids are teenagers and experienced hikers since the mandatory hike into/out of the canyon can be brutal. On all Hatch trips, you’ll need to be prepared for extreme temperatures (well over 100°F in the peak of summer), intense sun, cold water, rocky trails, and sand… everywhere.

If anyone in your family has any medical or dietary conditions or you are worried about their physical capabilities, you may want to discuss the suitability of such a trip with their doctor. We’re also happy to talk through your concerns and give you a realistic idea of the conditions you’ll experience.


Ready to get started? Here are some trips you might enjoy:

Rating: Active

7 Day Full Canyon Motorized Trip

Suitable for kids as young as 8, this is our most popular and most frequently offered style of trip. Most families book around school schedules, meaning you’re more likely to encounter other groups with kids if you book in June or July.

Rating: More Active

12 Day Full Canyon Oar Powered Trip

Suitable for kids as young as 12, this trip should be on your list of possibilities if you have a little more time to devote to your vacation. You’ll travel the same distance as on the Full Canyon Motorized, but on smaller boats rowed by our guides, making the experience more intimate for groups of up to 4 people. These smaller rafts can be tossed around a bit more, so be ready to hang on tight through the larger rapids.

Family Focused Rafting Expeditions Photo Gallery