Colorado may be best known for its skiing, but when the snow melts, the state’s whitewater makes it a paddling paradise.
From urban playparks to scenic stretches of rambling river, the options for rafting and kayaking range from mild to wild in Colorado.
In-town runs
Mountain towns have long elevated their riverfronts as centerpieces. Many high-country hamlets have a river park with man-made features that draw expert paddlers and tube-riding novices. Depending on the flow, parks and downtown whitewater appeal to all levels of paddlers.
If I were going to pick the top townie floats, it would be a tie between Durango’s recently revamped Animas River and Steamboat Springs’ Yampa River.
Designed by Olympic kayaker Scott Shipley, Durango’s nearly 30-year-old play park is nationally recognized as one of the country’s best. Shipley recently spent a million dollars redesigning and renovating the 12 features on the Animas River that runs through Durango’s Santa Rita Park. With holes that can move from Class III to Class IV as flows increase, Durango’s park is not for novices or tubers. Most of Durango’s rafting outfitters — check out Mild 2 Wild Rafting (50 Animas View Drive, 970-247-4789, mild2wildrafting.com) — have daily floats through the town’s splashy Smelter, Santa Rita, Sawmill and Pinball rapids, offering a variety of crafts from traditional rafts to inflatable kayaks to stand-up paddle boards.
Steamboat Springs’ Yampa River is often busier than its Main Street in the height of summer, as tubers, rafters, kayakers, stand-up paddlers and anglers happily mingle in the wide, ambling river. A float through town typically takes an hour, not including the stroll back upstream on the bike path. The vendors renting tubes are plentiful.
Wild Poudre
If you are looking for wild and scenic, that would be northern Colorado’s Cache la Poudre River, a Front Range jewel that offers Class II to Class V whitewater slicing through granite corridors.
Rafting on the state’s only federally designated Wild and Scenic River is typically divided into two sections: the lower, easier runs and the upper, more difficult sections. Outfitters on the lower half — check out A Wanderlust Adventure (4120 W. County Road 54G, Laporte, 800-745-7238, awanderlustadventure.com) — can float kids as young as 7 through Class II and Class III rapids. Trips on the upper section are rowdier, with adrenaline-churning drops and waterfalls that cut through some of Colorado’s most scenic gorges.
Arkansas
The Arkansas River from Granite to Cañon City is the most trafficked stretch of whitewater in the country. For good reason. The river, which hosted more than 190,000 rafters last year, can thrill every type of whitewater fan, from the most grizzled kayaker to the novice rubber rider. The Arkansas River is truly one-stop shopping for every river lover.
Above Buena Vista, the Arkansas tumbles through a ravine bisected by the boat-eating Pine Creek Rapid. Anyone venturing through this Class-V stretch best be prepared. A swim in Pine Creek is never pretty. Downstream, the Arkansas meanders through seven distinct rapids, known as The Numbers. Kayakers love this stretch year-round as the current allows passage through granite boulders even in winter. The rafting options grow as the river enters Buena Vista, where the town’s river play park is a hive of paddling action.
Browns Canyon downstream of Buena Vista recently won designation as a National Monument, a nod to the pristine and remote granite gorge’s beauty. If you have only a day to sample the Upper Arkansas Valley’s whitewater, Browns Canyon is your spot. Nearly every outfitter on the river — check out Wilderness Aware Rafting (12600 U.S. 24, Buena Vista, 800-462-7238, inaraft.com) — offers trips down Browns, which delivers scenic floats and plenty of wave-riding action.
Both whitewater parks in Salida and Buena Vista feature tall, less-steep waves designed for stand-up surfing, lending credence to Chaffee County’s boast of the best beaches in Colorado.
Further downstream, the river mellows from Salida to Parkdale, a popular stretch for fishing. Actually, the 102-mile stretch of the Arkansas River from below Leadville to Parkdale was awarded Gold Medal fishing status in January 2014. The river now accounts for nearly one-third of Colorado’s 322 Gold Medal river miles.
The final whitewater thrills on the Arkansas River are found in the Royal Gorge, a chasm unlike any other in Colorado. Echo Canyon Rafting Expeditions (45000 W. U.S. 50, Cañon City, 800-755-3246, raftecho.com) offers full-day and half-day trips down the gorge.
Upper C
The Upper Colorado is one of Colorado’s most overlooked stretches of river, eclipsed by the popular Ruby-Horsethief, Westwater, Cataract and Grand Canyon sections downstream. While the Class V Gore Canyon just below Kremmling draws expert rafters and kayakers, the sections below Gore offer family-friendly floating.
The new Gore Canyon Whitewater Park above the meandering flats of the Pumphouse Recreation Area is the second park on the Colorado River, following Glenwood Springs’ wildly popular whitewater park. Eagle County’s open-space program has invested heavily in its 55 miles of the Colorado River, hoping to establish the lonely, mellow Class-II section between Pumphouse and Dotsero as a floating and fishing destination. A collection of new boat ramps — like the Two Bridges Access Point and Horse Creek River Access — are lifting the Upper C from obscurity.
Visit eaglecounty.us/openspace for maps and locations of the new recreation areas along the Colorado. With easy access and a trove of float-up campsites, the Colorado River between State Bridge and Dotsero is one of the state’s river gems. Check out the trips offered by Timberline Tours (800-831-1414, timberlinetours.com) in this area.
Dominguez
There’s only one way into the wild canyons of Escalante and Dominguez: the lower Gunnison River. The wilderness float follows the gentle ripples (Class I-II) of the lower Gunnison below the popular Gunnison Gorge. The Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area is one of Colorado’s quietest corners, with few travelers and abundant wildlife. The scenic stretch is perfect for kids and beginners on inflatable kayaks and stand-up boards. Take it slow and spend a couple of nights, hiking to petroglyphs and waterfalls between floats. Check out Gunnison River Expeditions (8949 Pleasure Park Road, Hotchkiss, 970-874-8184, gunnisonriverexpeditions.com) for more info.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasonblevins
