Rafting the West!

  • Introduction to Rafting

    Whitewater rafting allows you to experience remote wilderness environments, excitement and high adventure, and a rare level of self-sufficiency. On an overnight river rafting trip you camp out in comfort, in a deluxe spare-no-frills style (more...)

  • Clothing for Rafting Trips

    It's all about staying comfortable in the wilderness and being ready for anything. If you're planning to take a whitewater rafting trip with a commercial guide service, expect them to provide the specialized clothing items such as neoprene wetsuit, neoprene boots and (more...)

  • Rafts and Other Whitewater Craft

    Modern whitewater rafts come in two basic flavors: 'self bailing rafts' and 'cat-a-rafts'. Self bailing rafts or 'self bailers' have the traditional raft shape, while catarafts, known as 'cats' for short, are made of a pair of pontoons straddled (more...)

  • Reserving Camps

    If you're lucky enough to win a permit to float either the Middle Fork or Main Salmon, one of your chores as trip leader is to obtain reservations for the campsites that you wish to stay at. Both these rivers have formal campsite reservation systems. Leaders of each rafting party must apply for (more...)

  • What Happens on the River...

    In definance of the saying, 'what happens on the river stays on the river', here are a few intestesting situations to ponder (more...)

  • Leave No Trace

    River canyons suitable for rafting are generally steep sided and thus, the places to camp within them are very limited. This is not a new situation. These campsites are often the same places that mankind has been camping for thousands (more...)

  • River Life - Going Tribal

    Day to day living on a rafting trip takes you back to a simpler time. For one thing, human beings have been sitting around, staring into and being warmed by the heat of campfires for a very long time. Campfires are just plain therapeutic (more...)