Any recommendations? Will take my 13 year old around July. 3 or 4 day trip would be cool. Leaning towards Oregon or Utah, Grand Canyon is booked up.
I've been a couple of times always just did a day trip. One just outside of Denver and Ocoee River in Tennessee were both great.
Cañon City, CO. Just outside of Colorado Springs. Pikes Peak is also nearby. I always go with River Runners at the Royal Gorge. Half day or full day, novice to expert available.
We did the Royal Gorge while in Colorado. The scenery was very nice but the rafting was a little boring.
Royal Gorge was raging when we went, wifey got tossed. Ocoee was very fun and kid friendly. I've always wanted to do Cherry Creek in Yosemite but it had been under a drought for the last decade.... it should be scary this year. We did a good one in Montana, the Missoula I think. Flew into Spokane, Played golf at Cour'De' Lane too.
Are you based in Texas? Big Bend is worth the trip and I know people raft the Santa Elena Canyon which is a sight in itself. So beautiful. I can’t really speaking to the levels of difficulty though. It was too hot when we went and my son wasn’t even 1 yet so we found other things to do.
I was gonna add that if you are doing it now in the summer, do the highest allowed. We did a class 4 in Colorado and it was pretty weak as most of the snow has melted away already and the rapids arent that vigorous but dont know if we were allowed to do a class 5. OP might be in a different situation with kids but class 4 should be fine around this time of year.
I can highly recommend the Tuolumne River (pronounced “Too-WAL-oo-mm-nee”) in California just outside of Yosemite. I took my 14 year old son there a number of years back and we had a great time on a two day trip. We did have some issues navigating the Class V Clavey Falls rapids, so if you or your son are not thrill seekers it might be a bit much. We used the Oars outfitters and they did a good job. Bonuses are the Tuolumne River is a controlled release river out of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir so the water flow is guaranteed, and you can hit SF and Yosemite for bonus points if you have the time. We stayed in some reasonably priced cabins just outside Yosemite.
It really just depends on the when, the who, and the how much water. Not sure anybody's mentioned it yet but West VA has the best whitewater I've seen in the lower 48, Tennessee also. Arkansas in the Ozarks if you want a closer trip. Rio Pacuare in Costa Rica, Matanuska in Alaska, Alumine in Argentina, those would be my top 5's. Haven't done New Zealand yet.....soon? My buddy works for that company in Taos I mentioned, he can recommend other stuff around the Rockies, he's lived everywhere up there. I'll get you his email if you want.
