How We Handle High Water

Cataract Canyon

• Every Cataract Canyon trip comes with an S Rig (large raft with a motor). 
• When water levels swell, we will only use these boats rather than our oar boats through the rapid section. Waves can climb to 20 feet or higher during peak runoff, and our large rigs made to handle these walls of water will make for one of the most memorable rides of your life. 

Daily Trips

• We use the same 15 foot rafts during high water, however we’ll put an oar frame on them so the guide has more control. 
• These set ups still allow you to paddle, the raft will just have more power and handling from the guide.  
• If you’re on a single boat trip, we usually add a safety boat to come along. 
• High flows may require kayaks to switch to premium boats.

All Other Trips

• Rafts will be adjusted on a case-by-case basis depending on the rapids of that particular river. 
• Expect for kayaks to not be an option depending on the river and how saucy the rapids are. 

Lower Animas 

• Too high of flows may require us to run lower sections of the river where the rapids aren’t as big, or switch trips to another day.  

Upper Animas 

• Depending on the time of year when the Upper Animas becomes too dangerous to run, we’ll move trips over to the Piedra River, San Miguel or Dolores. 
• While these rivers are usually considered intermediate, peak runoff flows can bump them up to high adventure. 

Cataract Canyon   

• When the swell is too colossal on Cat, our top recommendations for switching trips is the Green River through Gates of Lodore, the Yampa, or Dolores River. 

Castle Valley

• When the Colorado River through Castle Valley swells too high, we’ll reschedule trips for another day, or move downstream where the rapids aren’t as big.

San Miguel 

• During high flows, we may move further downstream where the river corridor opens up and there’s more space for the water to go. 

Piedra 

• We may move to the Dolores, San Miguel, or Lower Animas when flows are too high on the Piedra.  

Salt River   

• High flows on the Salt River, we will reschedule for another day.
• For multi-day guests, we may switch to Cataract Canyon if that works for the guests.

We list the age restrictions on each of our trips’s landing pages, which include low and high water limits. 

The high water season usually lasts between the last weeks of May and the first weeks of June. However, when there’s extra snow in the mountains to supply extra runoff, high water can either flow in earlier and/or later than those weeks. 

If the water swells over average runoff levels, we reserve the right to raise age limits, move trips with kids to other rivers or switch sections that are more appropriate..

Lower Animas 

• At super high flows we’ll portage Smelter Rapid, walk around, and put in at Santa Rita right below it. 
• All rafters ages 4-5 have to walk around Smelter, regardless of water levels. We may also raise the age limit for running Smelter Rapid. 
• If you purchased the photo package for Smelter, our photographer will snap you going through the Santa Rita rapid instead.

Upper Animas

• During high water we portage “No Name,” a technical Class V rapid.