This is desert canyon country. With that said, the rivers of the Southwest are far from monochromatic. Their surrounding land formations are almost always enthralling. And the life along the river can hold you equally spellbound. Ecosystems can include alpine, chapparal, riparian, and coniferous forest. Humans have inhabited much of this area since time immemorial, leaving fascinating traces. Of course, you won't. . .

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The trip of legends—from John Wesley Powell to Colin Fletcher—the Grand Canyon has it all: soaring scenery, ancient ruins, riotous whitewater, and periods of deep peace. Some have said that floating the Grand Canyon is the closest thing this culture has to a tribal initiation rite.

If you want to run the river privately, it takes ten years to get to the top of the waiting list. Book a trip with an outfitter and you can go this year. You have three trip options. If you have just a week, you can take the five-day float from Lees Ferry to Phantom Ranch—and then hike up out of the canyon. The trip from Phantom Ranch to the end at Lake Meads usually takes ten days. Since this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, try to do the whole three-week shebang, and take time out for sidehikes to experience the canyon's astounding natural features and Anasazi ruins.

More on the rafting the Grand Canyon

Green River/Lodore Canyon, Utah
Difficulty: Class II to III
Trip Length: Five days or more
Season: April through November

The Green River is an epic river. It cuts down the length of Utah before joining the Colorado River near Cataract Canyon. Lodore Canyon, near Dinosaur National Monument, is the classic trip on the Green, the one everyone mentions as a must do.

Lodore Canyon lies at the high, northern edge of the Colorado plateau. This is an high desert environment—juniper and pinion pine along the canyon along the river; bighorn sheep, flowery meadows, and lodgepole pine higher up—very different from the Sonoran desert found on the floor of the Grand Canyon. Another difference from the crowded Grand Canyon: the chances for having a top-quality wilderness experience is much higher. Forget campsite scrambles, there will be days when it feels as if you have the Green all to yourself.

The Lodore Canyon run doesn't have the roaring, lethal whitewater of the Grand Canyon. Its whitewater is intermediate, and it is spread out evenly on every day of the trip. It all adds up to a river on which you can relax and pursue your own interests. Where you can find your life again. John Wood, President of Holiday Expeditions, has led trips for years down the Green. In listing its many charms, he mentions, "Prehistoric Indian history. Blue ribbon trout streams. Waterfalls. Volleyball beaches. Great river mud—the kind of mud you'd spend several hundred dollars for in a spa."

That's what we call a well-rounded river.

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Rio Grande/Big Bend National Park, Texas
Difficulty: Class I to III
Season: All year, best in winter
Trip Length: One to seven days

The three river canyons of Big Bend National Park—Santa Elena, Mariscal, and Boquillas—can be rafted either singly or altogether as a seven-day trip. Each canyon has a distinctive character, so picking out just one to do is thornier than canyon-bottom cactus. The Santa Elena is the first and most popular canyon. Its charms include waterfalls, fossils, petroglyphs, wildlife, and the notorious Rock Slide Rapids—a walloping stretch of hard-to-figure whitewater. Boquillas Canyon is much calmer: its whitewater is barely Class II. The 4,000-foot canyon walls, caves and rock formations make this a good trip for sinking into geological time—slow and majestic. Mariscal is a festive canyon, with lower walls and lively rapids. It is the most remote of Big Bend's canyons: beckoning those who seek wilderness.

More on the paddling Big Bend National Park

The Rio Grande in New Mexico boasts several sections, but none beats the Taos Box, which extends for 15-miles from John Dunn Bridge to Taos Junction Bridge. Roads make put-in and take-out very convenient, but in between is pure, untamed desert canyon.

The San Juan flows through the heart of Anasazi country, and no trip down the river is complete without several side hikes to experience the sublime desert environment and ancient ruins found along the way. Far from rampaging, the San Juan is more a meditative journey than any other we've selected here.

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