I’m clinging to a cable attached to a rock face. The trail ahead — actually, more of a 3-foot-wide platform cut into the rock — mirrors the zig and zag of the canyon wall. I’m not a fan of heights, ...

Contemplate this stark contrast in setting: Sitting in a car for three hours heading down Route 95 to New York City or bobbing along gracefully in a raft for a week in one of Earth’s geologic wonders.

“My first river trip through Grand Canyon was a life-changing experience that permanently altered the way I looked at Grand Canyon, the Colorado River and the American Southwest,” says James Kaiser.

“You cannot see the Grand Canyon in one view, as if it were a changeless spectacle from which a curtain might be lifted. But to see it you have to toil from month to month through its labyrinths.” — ...