Colorado ranks among the world’s greatest river-running destinations, given the high quality and variety of its whitewater and the abundance of first-rate outfitters and guides calling the state home. At Echo Canyon River Expeditions, we’re proud to be among those top-tier rafting outfitters, and exceedingly fortunate to apply our trade on some of the finest recreational flows anywhere—most especially the mighty Arkansas River.
The Arkansas is a prime example of how one can enjoy both world-class whitewater adventure and ultra-relaxing float trips in Colorado—and our Echo Canyon team offers both! But how do you choose between these kinds of rafting tours, which deliver overlapping but also quite distinct on-the-current experiences? Let’s compare and contrast to help you lock down the perfect Colorado getaway!
Float Trips in Colorado
Let’s get this straight off the bat: Guided float trips are a form of whitewater rafting. They’re just at the lowest-intensity, most thoroughly beginner-friendly end of the spectrum.
Scenic float trips such as those we lead at Echo Canyon are as relaxing and serene as riding a river gets, emphasizing chill, “going-with-the-flow vibes and maximum opportunity to drink in grand scenery and watch for wildlife. Sure, there are a few splashes here and there as the raft slips through shoals, riffles, and minor rapids, but it’s nothing intimidating—just a thoroughly pleasant bit of variety in what otherwise is mostly a flatwater/swiftwater cruise.
On our Echo Canyon River Expeditions scenic float trips, you can participate or not in the paddling. In other words, if it’s your druthers to just kick back and marinate in the beauty of a Colorado canyon, that’s perfectly fine—no effort on your part is required!
An ideal gateway to more technical whitewater outings—and, as we’ll get to, perfect for families with tykes—float trips in Colorado can also deliver a genuinely therapeutic outdoor experience. Perhaps you’ve heard of “forest bathing,” which refers to the calming effects of spending time in the woods (an ancient human hangout). Well, consider float trips and other leisurely river activities as a rafting analogue to that: the opportunity to lower your heart rate, reacquaint your senses with the natural world, and receive the benefits—tangible and otherwise—which come from time spent directly engaging with one of the planet’s primal environments and forces, namely flowing water.
Exploring White Water Rafting
Once you start incorporating more and larger rapids into the mix—and once you’re actually helping navigate the boat downstream by working as a team with your fellow paddlers and your guide—you’re in the territory of “true” whitewater rafting.
But there’s still a broad gradient in this category. There are many opportunities here in Colorado—not least among our varied Echo Canyon itineraries—when it comes to whitewater rafting for beginners. Rapids (and river reaches) are typically rated on the International Scale of River Difficulty (which you can read more about in this blog). River sections with Class III rapids—the “Intermediate” level that many consider marks the lower end of “real” whitewater—are very much open to beginner rafters, depending on their physical abilities and comfort levels.
And then you’ve got the wilder water: the big waves, deep holes, and tricky obstacles that distinguish Class IV (“Advanced”) and Class V (“Expert”) whitewater runs. Here at Echo Canyon, we’ve got the full shebang, culminating in the Class IV+/V rapids of the Ark’s Royal Gorge under seasonally high flows.
Between that variety and our half-day, full-day, and multi-day whitewater trips, you’ve got Colorado rafting adventures of all kinds to choose from with our trusted, long-running company.
White Water Adventures vs. Float Trips in Colorado
So, now that you’ve got a sense of what distinguishes a river float trip from true whitewater rafting, how do you settle on the right package for your skill levels, preferences, and vacation goals?
Well, if you’re coming with a group, you’ll need to assess those factors for every member. Our rafting tours are open to most, but not quite all, ages. Our Gentle Scenic Float in Upper Bighorn Sheep Canyon is the go-to choice for little kids: It’s available for rafters as young as four years old, so long as they weigh more than 30 pounds (and thus can fit in an infant PFD). Our most popular rafting trip, the main Bighorn Sheep Canyon, is an option for kids as young as six years old.
So when it comes to the best Echo Canyon trip for complete newbies and families, we typically recommend either the Gentle Scenic Float or the Bighorn Sheep Canyon, depending on the ages and physical abilities represented in your party.
Easing up in rafting difficulty—or extending your experience from a half-day to a full-day one, for example—means considering everyone’s physical fitness and swimming abilities, not to mention their comfort levels when it comes to in-the-thick-of-it excitement.
Running rivers is also a seasonally attuned form of outdoor recreation. Whether it’s timed releases from a reservoir or the natural schedule of snowmelt runoff, nothing more fundamentally dictates the kind of experience you’ll have rafting than the river level and volume. So rafting trip preparation also means considering the season.
Here in our neck of the woods in Colorado, we tend to see the greatest annual flows in the earlier third of the season, typically hitting peak discharge (and thus the biggest, wildest water) in June or so. (Each year varies a little depending on the magnitude of our Rocky Mountain snowpack and the weather factors that determine when it melts off.) That’s when adventure-class whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River is at its best, with some windows of Class IV exhilaration possible in the Bighorn Sheep Canyon and certain legendary rapids of the Royal Gorge muscling into Class V status.
But awesome rafting opportunities continue later into the summer, with river levels gradually dropping and that “adventure-class” water essentially working its way downstream to the Mississippi (of which the Arkansas is the second-longest tributary, by the way). Late summer, getting toward the tail-end of our rafting season, sees the always-tame Gentle Scenic Float at its tamest and the rapids in our more technical reaches eased down to moderate—but still thoroughly thrilling—intensity.
Choosing the Right Adventure: What a Float Trip or Whitewater Adventure With Echo Canyon Offers
Now that we’ve run through some of the major differences between float trips and adventure whitewater rafting—and between the different sorts of packages that are available for the latter—let’s emphasize what awaits you regardless of which Echo Canyon River Expeditions itinerary you opt for.
The Arkansas River that’s our main focus at Echo Canyon boasts glorious and singular scenery. The most flat-out awe-inspiring awaits in the stunning Royal Gorge, which runs 1,200 feet deep in a narrow, sheer-walled chasm chiseled by fluvial action and tectonic uplift through an arch of tough old rock. But the cliffs and cottonwoods and pine groves of the Bighorn Sheep Canyon—not to mention the snow-painted high peaks framing Browns Canyon, an upriver route we also run on the Arkansas—are also plenty swoon-worthy.
And this corner of Colorado is one of the richest in terms of wildlife. Bighorn Sheep Canyon gets its name from the abundant mountain sheep it hosts. But bighorns can also be seen in other river sections, and you’ve also got the chance to spot other native critters such as river otters, mule deer, elk, coyotes, red foxes, black bears—maybe even a mountain lion! Not to mention all sorts of raptors, from ferruginous hawks to golden eagles.
Plan Your Perfect Rafting Vacation
In short, you can’t go wrong with an Echo Canyon rafting excursion, whether it’s of the easy-peasy, laidback or adrenaline-pumping variety.
Excited to kick off your Colorado adventure? Contact our friendly rafting specialists today to explore the awesome variety of float trips and whitewater rafting experiences we offer, tailored to your interests and needs.
