Family wants to plan a whitewater experience next summer in Colorado.
We are open to any part of the state…
Thanks '85

Cow Pie & Fries said:

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Family wants to plan a whitewater experience next summer in Colorado.
We are open to any part of the state…
Thanks '85

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Arkansas River. Go in June.

Canon City Colorado on Arkansas River through Royal Gorge is a kick. Check out some YouTube videos.

Numbers on the Arkansas or Shoshonee on the Colorado. Mid June is peak flow.

Our family has WW rafted 4 times over the years. This summer, we did the full day trip out of Buena Vista along the Arkansas through Browns Canyon. Most fun we've had yet. Went the last week of June. Previously had done the same river in Cañon City, which was also fun.

The Arkansas is great and offers a lot of options for experience level and scenery.

An alternative would be to stay in Pagosa or Durango and do the runs on the Animas and Piedra. Piedra offers some pretty intense experiences if you're crew is into that. You can run the Upper or Lower boxes. Some outfits will do both in a day if the group is experienced and fit. It's a pretty short season though.

Arkansas through the Royal Gorge is a good time. Really cool looking up from the bottom of the canyon.

Ages? Experience?

Thats Numbers

Another vote for the Arkansas. There are a few different trips out of Canon City and Buena Vista for various skill levels.

To help out OP, maybe SA few suggestions of outfitters would help?

We rafted with ...

https://www.americanadventure.com/

Posted in the other whitewater Colorado thread.

Browns Canyon on the Arkansas was awesome when I did it 25 years ago

Candiru said:

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We rafted with ...

https://www.americanadventure.com/

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I second this. I also use AAE out of Buena Vista and have had great experiences each time. Good for different skill levels....guides are top notch.

Thanks Ags! This thread delivers. I'm 61 , wife ( sorry no Rule 1 ) is 54 bringing teenage grands. Wife has rafted about 25 years ago. Yours truly & the teens never

Cow Pie & Fries said:

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Thanks Ags! This thread delivers. I'm 61 , wife ( sorry no Rule 1 ) is 54 bringing teenage grands. Wife has rafted about 25 years ago. Yours truly & the teens never

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your teens will be able to handle class 3 and some 4s...

Unless you feel confident in your swimming and physical ability, not sure I would go that far. A fun float would be 2s and 3s.

Class 4s can definitely cause you to pucker up and potentially get tossed.

There isn't much pushing into the IV-V range right now. I had friends run numbers this weekend and said it was about as gentle as they've seen it. The flow has slowed WAY down over the last month.

Well yeah. It's August.

My Grandpa and I went down Class V rapids up in Alaska back in 2014 when he was 86yrs old. We had to take a 2hr whitewater safety and rescue class before we could go down the river but it was the most fun rafting I have done.
As long as you learn how to lock your feet into the raft and do everything the guide tells you to, It's not that difficult.

StockHorseAg said:

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My Grandpa and I went down Class V rapids up in Alaska back in 2014 when he was 86yrs old. We had to take a 2hr whitewater safety and rescue class before we could go down the river but it was the most fun rafting I have done.
As long as you learn how to lock your feet into the raft and do everything the guide tells you to, It's not that difficult.

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Heh, until that guide puts you on a rock where you shouldn't be and you actually get tossed.

Like most things in life, as long as it goes as planned, it'll work out - something goes wrong on a class V, and you can be a goner pretty easily.

To each their own, I've done some high IV and V also.

I'm not sending someone who's never rafted on one for their first rodeo.

I mean if you get dumped, you get dumped but it's not bad. I'd be more worried about getting stuck with some annoying family from the northeast in my raft than dying while rafting.

To answer the Op's question though, the most fun rafting I have done in Colorado is on the Animas river in Durango. We rode the train halfway up to Silverton where we unloaded the rafts and rafted back down.

We did Royal Gorge about 10 years ago when it was running 4's pushing 5's at the end of June and it was a blast.

I've had several friends DIE in 4/5. They are absolutely deadly and nothing to joke about. Above poster has it 100% correct. They're fun until they aren't. 3 of those that have died were rafting guides. 2 world class level.

Whatever your granny did it likely wasn't a true IV/V at the time it was run. That's beyond ******ed and nothing any rafting guide with ANY sense would ever do.

This x 100

If that's your fear while on the river in a true IV/V, you sir are a FOOL. Your attitude is exactly what gets a lot of TX tourists in above their head. Lord have mercy SMH. My guess is you ran a IV/V with a II or III flow. If you ran a true IV/V you wouldn't have time to think about anything but the next rock or hole. As a responsible outfitter you DONT put an 80+ year old man there ever especially not first time. That's beyond dangerous to the point it's almost if not negligent from an outfitters standpoint. If it was a true IV/V that put not only him in danger but the entire raft. That's a huge red flag to never use them.

And PFD don't always save your life. I've had several friends with the best PFDs pass because they hit their head or get caught on under debris. The river will eat you and spit you out and not give a ****. Guessing they didnt have you wear a helmet either just PFDs? If so, wow. Most drowning's don't happen because of the inability to swim. They happen because the rafter strikes their head after the raft rolls and they drown in their pfd because they're out cold face down and you can't get to them oft current and you never leave the raft to try at that point. If you've ever been in a raft that slips of a shelf over a hole, you aren't worried about anything but surviving and praying for your raft mates. You couldn't care less about anybodys level of annoying.

Edit ti add: I've been on a raft that flopped w people that didn't end up going home that day. It's a sick and helpless feeling you will never forget. You get to the shore and you're counting heads and when one's missing you know what that means and you just pray pray pray. If you have time during a IV/V to get annoyed w someone voice, it's not a IV/V. Those are non sequitors.

Hello Panda.

Hoyt Ag said:

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Hello Panda.

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I thought he'd lost internet in the move to Mexico. Nope!

Too easy to identify.

Hoyt Ag said:

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Hello Panda.

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LOL. I was wondering where he went.

I'd been thinking the same thing. That said if you're fit and in early 60s, with teens that want to have fun and are active. Numbers at low to medium flow would be fine, if that doesn't fit your family hit up browns.

StockHorseAg said:

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My Grandpa and I went down Class V rapids up in Alaska back in 2014 when he was 86yrs old. We had to take a 2hr whitewater safety and rescue class before we could go down the river but it was the most fun rafting I have done.
As long as you learn how to lock your feet into the raft and do everything the guide tells you to, It's not that difficult.

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Number 1... what river?

Actually doesn't matter... it wasn't class V

For the OP...

Just go to Buena Vista and do Browns. If it isn't enough for you, the next day do the Numbers. Browns is fun and beautiful.

Here is the way to tell them apart...

Class 3 - Any decent guide will get you down without any trouble or help from the custies. Middle Ocoee and Brown's Canyon are classic class 3. If I am guiding either, even if you try to screw me up as a passenger, I can still hit the moves. People still die on these rivers. Don't fall out of the boat and all will be good.

Class 4 - The guide will occasionally need help from the custies to make the moves. Numbers, Upper Ocoee, Toualumne, Upper Animas, Lower Gauley are Classic Class 4, even though people say they are class V. They aren't Class V and none of those even have a single class 5 rapid on them.

Class 5. There are only a couple legit class 5 sections in America that are regularly commercially rafted. Cherry Creek in California is the famous one. Lumsden falls is pretty legit class 5, the rest of the rapids are 4+ ish, but altogether that is a class 5 run. Pine Creek (section above the numbers) is maybe class 5, especially if the water level is high or if it is early season and the water is cold. While Pine creek only has 2 rapids that could be called class 5, swims are long cold, and dangerous. Most people call the upper gauley class 5, but it is really class 4+ with a high number of deaths. If flow was natural it would be class 5 but it is the same every release day and very dialed in. Still, lost paddle rapid is a legit class 5 rapid and Insignificant kills a LOT of people.

Class 5 sections require strong teamwork from the paddlers, the guide cannot do it by himself and a weak party member causes trouble. Mistakes are punished and consequences of mistake are very high. Swims will be long and cold.


Funny stuff... I used to take friends out to the upper gauley for beer runs. We would take my small raft and run the rapids with 2 friends up front, a huge cooler of beer in the middle, and me in the back. At the bottom of every big drop we would pull out the swimmers closest to drowning, calm them down, give them a beer, then send them back to their raft. They would be crying and pleading not to be sent back. I bet we would pull out10 people a day, all crying not to be sent back to their boats. Big Class 4, small 5 is legit. Don't take kids on it.