Colorado rafting outfitters are relishing a surge in visitation after two years of business-sinking drought and wildfire.
As river flows become less intimidating, trips are selling out. Guests are spending more. Snowpack lingers in the high country, promising a paddling season that could push into fall.
“All the indicators are super positive right now,” said Alex Mickel, who has all 90 of his employees working this week as guests flock to his Mild To Wild rafting and tour company in Durango. “We are definitely benefiting from the economic rebound, too. People are looking at longer trips, stepping up to longer days, adding Jeep tours.”
Signs are good that Colorado’s rafting industry could host more than 500,000 user days, returning to the heydays of 2006, 2007 and 2008. Even if the visits don’t reach record levels, tourists are opening wallets wider, with resort towns across the state reporting record sales tax revenue last summer and this past winter. Last year, more than 461,000 rafters riding Colorado’s rivers and streams spent $56.7 million, creating an economic impact of $145.3 million.
That was a step toward recovery from the drought- and wildfire-plagued 2012 season, which ranks as the second-worst year for Colorado rafting since 1995. But 2013, too, was haunted by wildfire.
Fires around Durango pinched traffic on the popular Animas River. The Royal Gorge fire near Cañon City deterred rafters on the Arkansas River, the most trafficked river in the country. The heavily publicized Black Forest fire in Colorado Springs kept more rafters at bay.
“We will suffer more from a fire up by Colorado Springs or Denver than we will from a fire down here because those are the ones who get the big press,” said Durango’s Mickel, noting how wildfire coverage tends to deter vacationers.
This year — knock wood — lasting snowpacks and spring storms have dampened the wildfire scene, giving outfitters a head start on what could be the best season in five years.
As river flows recede from the initial gush of spring snowmelt, rafters are flocking. Last week, Ryan Barwick’s MAD Adventures and Rocky Mountain Adventures rafts filled to capacity on the Colorado and Cache la Poudre rivers and Clear Creek.
“My gut feeling is that we are seeing some pent-up demand, but it’s hard to quantify,” said Barwick, who had all 75 of his employees on deck as he reached capacity for tours on the Poudre and Clear Creek. “The economy has stabilized and people are traveling. We had our best preseason bookings in five years. Now that we are past the high-water phase, the floodgates are open.”
High flows and stormy afternoons delayed the start of the rafting season, which hits its peak this holiday weekend. But the winter’s healthy snowfall has built a lasting snowpack up high, translating to consistent flows in rivers down low. Flowing rivers have sated agricultural users farther east, and those users have yet to place widespread calls for irrigation water from reservoirs. That means rafters could enjoy sustained, buoyant flows when those calls do happen in the next two months.
The river riding season is shaping up to last well into September, maybe even October, said David Costlow, president of the Colorado River Outfitters Association, which represents 44 outfitters operating on 19 rivers and creeks in the state.
That promise of consistent flows allows outfitters to book trips into the shoulder months.
“When you are not sure what the water flows are going to be, you tend not to book. But when you are going to have flows, you are more positive and people are more inclined to book trips,” said Costlow, who predicts the season user tally could top the half-million mark last seen in 2008. “Let’s hope things stay strong for a while.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasonblevins
