Browns Canyon Full Day Whitewater Rafting Trip

Overview

Enjoy the beauty and excitement of Browns Canyon National Monument on a full day whitewater rafting tour down the Arkansas River. Your guide will go over safety procedures, paddling techniques and tell you about the area’s unique history, flora and fauna. They will also prepare a deli-style riverside lunch. This tour departs directly from the River Runners Browns Canyon outpost, a riverside property just south of Buena Vista, Colorado. Transportation is provided from the take-out back to River Runners. All gear is included in the price of the trip.

City: Buena Vista

Tue 24 Dec

Other dates

You can choose the date already on the booking website

Starting at $153.85

Make a reservation

Tue 24 Dec

Starting at $153.85

Make a reservation

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What's Included

Rafting gear (wetsuit, splash top, boots, PFD and helmet)

Lunch

Lunch, water and lemonade

Transportation from take-out back to outpost

Additional Info

Wheelchair accessible
Service animals allowed
Not recommended for pregnant travelers
Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular health
Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness
Inherent Risk
There are inherent risks with whitewater rafting. All participants must assume that risk. Everyone will need to read and sign a waiver/release form. Anyone under the age of 18 must have a parent or legal guardian’s signature on the form.
Face masks required for travellers in public areas
Face masks required for guides in public areas
Face masks provided for travellers
Hand sanitiser available to travellers and staff
Social distancing enforced throughout experience
Regularly sanitised high-traffic areas
Gear/equipment sanitised between use
Transportation vehicles regularly sanitised
Guides required to regularly wash hands
Contactless payments for gratuities and add-ons

What To Expect

Browns Canyon National Monument

Raft through Browns Canyon National Monument and stop for a catered riverside lunch.

Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Traveler Photos

Reviews (37)

David W

Aug 2017

My wife, two old college friends, and myself all did the River Runners full day Browns Canyon trip. It was super fun and the guides--well done Dylan!-- were all very skilled, knowledgeable, and safety minded. This section includes several exciting and fun rapids, but nothing scary at our early August flows. The full day includes lunch which was very nice and plenty of food for everyone served riverside. We stopped by one spot to cliff jump and several in our group enjoyed doing that. One great thing about River Runners is their location: you launch for your trip from their riverside headquarters. When you return they have a very nice outside bar and grill on the river if you want to linger some more. Overall, I highly recommend River Runners for your river rafting experience.

Legatjoe

Jul 2017

Family of four, including one 9 and one 11 year old did the full days Browns Canyon Raft trip. The date was July 9 and the weather was perfect. River Runners provided splash jackets which were worn part of the trip, helmets and booties. I would advise bringing an old pair of running shoes to wear. They will get soaked but work great for rafting. The trip was perfect for the age of my children. If you want more intense rapids book earlier in the season. There was a spot where those who wanted could jump off a rock into the river. The rock was probably about 15 feet up. There was also a rapid that those who wanted could jump out and float through as well as a few still water swimming areas. A big horn sheep was spotted in the canyon to make the trip complete.

tbertele

Jun 2015

I invited some friends / business associates up for a weekend of whitewater and camping. After reading some reviews online, I settled for River Runners. I have done a number of trips on the Arkansas river, but this was my first commercial trip in over 20 years. Most of my experience running this river is kayaking and a few private boat trips with friends. In fact I have swam just about every section from Railroad Bridge to the mouth of the gorge, so I do know whitewater. This year was an epic water year, typically anything over 3,000 cfs (cubic feet per second) is pretty sporty. The week prior to our launch it was at 5,000 cfs, but had dropped significantly. More water is not necessarily better, since features can just flood out while others get so out of control that commercial (and sane private) operators ‘bypass’ some of these features. We arrived an hour prior to launch and met our guide, Tyler. Like most river guides, they enjoy what they do and he was definitely living the dream. He had been guiding on this river for a number of years, but was also an avid Kayaker (which adds another layer of expertise). Like all river guides, this is seasonal work; his full time gig was an EMT with the county. This was pretty cool, because you have a guy who loves the river, who knows the river, and has a lot of experience with risk management and seeing firsthand the cause and effect of poor decision making. I felt we had the perfect guide and as long as we could take commands and operate the boat efficiently, we were in for a safe, but exciting day. So like I said, we opted for the full day numbers through Browns canyon trip. Since the water was so high, the AHRA closed off the numbers section to all commercial outfitters, so we would have to put in just below them at Railroad Bridge. The first part is the miracle mile, which is a continuous section of class IV (at this level). This went really well, even though the ‘experienced kayaker’ nearly fell out of the boat when a rogue wave hit me. From then on I worked a little harder to secure my feet. Things settled down for a few then we hit Frog Rapid and House Rock. Both of these features at this flow were very different than what I have experienced (1,750 vs 3,500) and it was a blast. We hit BV town playpark and then down through the old dam into the silver bullet which was another fantastic rapid. After two hours on the river we finally reached River Runners base camp (the ½ way point) and pulled out for lunch. We are all really wet from the morning and welcomed the sun as we dried off. Most of the guys in my group had wetsuits (based on recommendations from the employees). Go with their recommendations, I had my own dry top and wore a bathing suit, which was fine for me. Lunch was make your own wraps, fresh fruit, lemonade, cookies, chips and salsa. Great lunch, no complaints there... After an hour of eating and lounging, it was back into the boat and we headed downstream towards Brown’s Canyon. Brown’s is a beautiful stretch of the Arkansas that moves away from the highway into a quiet and remote setting. Some fantastic rapids like the toilet bowl and zoom flume await below. Our guide pointed out various geological features (like the smoking Indian) and to my surprise a local strain of hops that grows along the river. Those of you who make the trip in August will be able to grab handfuls of hops. As we continued down, Tyler asked us how we wanted to hit an infamous rapid called Seidel’s Suckhole. There are two ways to hit this, river left ‘sneak’ or right down the middle. After very little debate, we elected to ram it down the middle. Tyler worked us over on a new command, ‘dig’, which means to put in your paddle and pull as hard as you can. Getting through Seidel’s requires some maneuvering and momentum. As we dropped in we cut river right to go down the throat, PULL PULL PULL. We hit the first wave and it bounced us all over the place. Paddles went up, people flew about, helmets bobbed. As the bow came back down into the hole, all went white and brown and bam, up we went again. The bow went vertical and the bodies flew around again. As I grabbed onto the boat, I saw our guide halfway in the water. I grabbed his PFD and hoisted him back in. It was utterly and completely EPIC. BTW, if your guide falls out of the boat, he owes the crew beers…. After Seidel’s, we hit a few lesser rapids and eventually hit the takeout around 4:00. After a short drive we were back at River Runners changing, drying off, and enjoying some food and drinks at their cafe. Bottom line, this was an epic day of whitewater. Over 23 miles of rapids though a fantastic section of the Arkansas river. Our guide was top notch and made the trip. I highly recommend River Runners and will likely do the Gorge trip with them next year. Seidel’s suckhole video (does not do it justice, but gives you an idea) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGxkHFwemAo