Just did this run last weekend. Water was so high we did it in the morning before they closed it to commercial rafting. Had one flip in our group. Best rafting I've ever done.
Ahh memories. Ran this dozens of times! As a boatman back in the day (1980's) for Royal Gorge Rafting. Had a couple of bodacious flips! Also had one run where multiple rafts flipped - all boatman only trips, BTW - and we nearly lost two of our peeps. Truly thought one guy was a goner. We literally saved his life. Took him two days to recover and he never rafted the gorge again. The other boatman (boatwoman, actually) got caught in "Keeper" for a while. (Or it might have been "Grateful Dead?" I was downriver trying to save the other guy.) Both were in the river too long. She was one of our most experienced, skilled, brave boatmen, but that was it for her for the summer. Shaken to her core. Respect the River! Always. What a run!
The Arkansas river through the Royal Gorge is definitely NOT class V. Low class IV at best. The ONLY commercially-run class V on the Arkansas is Pine Creek, much higher up on the river. And even that is just a single rapid (but a burly one, at that).
I love the video and I actually like your music, I may use it for my group training classes next Friday. We're going to Colorado at the end of July and wanted to know what white water rafting company yall used.
They went with raft masters which is great if you want a dirty bus and old, ugly boats. The best companies are not rafting all this year but echo will at least put you in a nice boat
Valu Proxy Not all class 5s are large drops, some class 5s can be long segments of very fast moving water like you see in this video. Probably s lot of rocks and sharp things + the fast water makes it a class 5.
Yea it actually isn't Class V, but some nice IV's and a lot of them. Rafting Companies do often lie about rapids to make guests feel more excited and pay the money to come and raft. I've seen it first hand as I am a guide myself. That doesn't take anything away from it though, the Ark is a badass river! The best one in CO!
No, the Upper Animas is the best river in Colorado, followed by Gore Canyon (Colorado river), followed by the Piedra (especially the lower box), and THEN the Arkansas. With honorable mention going to the Cache La Poudre, the Roaring Fork, the Gunnison, the Eagle, the Yampa, Clear Creek (aka Coors Beer Creek), and the North Platte.
Valu Proxy these are class 5’s it is based off of the danger scale and with there being multiple rocks and non stop white water it is a five. This is coming from a experienced rafter
Exactly!! I can’t watch due to the shitty music- I just got back today from a 8 day trip in Grand Canyon and was looking forward to watching other rivers, but oh well lol
You definitely have to be in good shape, but only meaning no serious injuries. Our friend had to sit out because she had a bad hip... You have to be able to have some strength to paddle and maneuver through the crazy parts!
This footage is amazing! I'm a reporter for Caters News and we'd love to feature this in a new tv series we're working on. Can you please email me at alycecollins@catersnews.com for info - thanks!
Nothing class V about this run. You may be able to fool grandma back home, but not us Coloradans. Stop lying to people on public forums, you’re going to mislead people and get someone hurt. 3+ tops in the vid.
Good morning, I’m a producer for a fun news show called "The List" - www.thelisttv.com - which airs on 43 stations in the US. I’ve been assigned an segment about some of the most adventurous locations across America. I would love to use a small portion of the video you made about white water rafting the Colorado and give you a graphical courtesy. Please let me know if you would be ok with this. Thanks and have a great day! Mike Dunn Producer - The List
