Rafting the Arkansas with River Runners

This post finds me kicking off a new category once again in the blog.  We are trying to take things up a notch and add some new areas of interest.  So here is the introductory post in our new reviews section.  This section will allow us to offer commentary and opinion on new and established products and businesses.  So with that…

Two weeks ago my wife, daughter and I decided to take a little day trip and go white water rafting on the Arkansas.  I can’t take credit for the planning because it was my wife who took care of all that. 

She tells me that making the reservation was a snap online at the River Runners website.  They are located about five miles south of Bueno Vista Colorado on the banks of the Arkansas River.  That is about about two and a half hours west of Denver. 

So we piled in the car early in the morning to make our 10:30 AM start time.

We dressed to get wet as the website said and got a little worried as we drove by the remains of a snow drift on the way that was still about 2 feet deep.  It was 70 degrees, we were wearing shorts and somehow there was still snow in that spot along the road.

When we arrived at River Runners we were greeted by name as we entered the building.  Pretty amazing as we had never been rafting before and never met the people there.  Hey, I was impressed.

The first thing the receptionist did was look at me, my wife and 10 year old daughter and tell us that renting wet suits was only $8 and she highly recommended it.  The water was cold and it was a windy day.

Dressed in wet suits for the first time we headed down to the river to meet Buckley who would be our river guide for the next few hours.  He took us through some safety checks, chatted for a while and we hit the river.

Since this was our first time rafting and our daughter was with us, we signed up for the half day trip which is designed for beginners and intermediate levels.  This half day trip offers up to class III rapids which were about perfect for us.

The overall service and rafting experience could not have been better.  We had a blast throughout the day.  Our river guide explained the terrain and river as we passed through areas and answered our questions.  Anyone who knows me understands that I have no end to questions.

Let me cover just a couple things which made this company the right one to choose for this trip. 

• They are right on the river.  That means no bus ride to get there, no carrying the raft to the banks.  You basically hop in and go.
• Their service was exceptional.
• Buckley was exceptional.  At one point when our daughter was getting a little cold he pulled a warm top out of a dry bag and dressed her up in it.

 Since our daughter wanted to get soaked on the trip she sat right up front.

If you look hard in the picture above you can see a little bit of blue in that big wave of water up front getting soaked.

I came out of this with two really good pieces of advice for anyone thinking of going white water rafting.  Choose a good company like River Runners and when they recommend a wet suit, take them up on it.  Nothing will ruin a fun trip quicker than being cold.

The website for River Runners offers a lot of nice features.  You can view pictures of your trip in addition to all the information related to trips and pricing.  They know how to treat their clients right down to the postcard we received a week afterward thanking us for visiting.