Comments on: What travel company is the best for river rafting on the American River in northern California and when would be the best time to go?

Question: What travel company is the best for river rafting on the American River in northern California and when would be the best time to go?

ebness86 — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:41:58 -0800

What travel company is the best for river rafting on the American River in northern California and when would be the best time to go?

By: ottereroticist

ottereroticist — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:11:20 -0800

The best time to run a river is when it's not totally butt cold but there's still a fun amount of water, which in many cases is late spring to mid-summer. This may vary from river to river.

This site has links and recommendations about river flows, from which you should be able to figure out which time of year is best on the American.

Here are reviews of All-Outdoors (who apparently also put up the site in the first link). They look pretty reputable to me.

By: Ogre Lawless

Ogre Lawless — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:11:16 -0800

That's a big river you're talking about but my guess is you're looking for the whitewater guides. I went on a trip from W.E.T. down the South Fork now some time ago but they were good times. O.A.R.S is generally s'posed to be decent and they do indeed seem to be everywhere. This list seems pretty comprehensive: tours and providers are capped through the south fork region per agreement with the locals. Most of these providers focus on the South Fork which is the more family-friendly one.

The other kind of rafting, the drunken kind, can also be achieved quite nicely along the American downstream of Folsom Lake, though they've had crackdowns on this activity in past years. I'd go with ARR 'cause the walk is easier than from River Rat's.

Time of year depends on what sort of pounding you'd like to take and how much snow runoff you'd like to marinate in. W.E.T. offers spring and storm-powered wintered tours if you've got some crazy in you but early summer is probably your best all-around bet.

By: DakotaPaul

DakotaPaul — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:16:58 -0800

We went whitewater rafting down the Middle Fork of the American river with American River Recreation a couple years ago. I really liked their outfit. We camped out with their group the night before, and the trip featured a lunch at the halfway point. Our guide was from Costa Rica and made killer guacamole. Anyway, they were very friendly and we had a blast with them. If I ever go again, I'll go with them.

We went the first week of June, and the river flow was very good.