X posted from the travel thread.

Looking for an outfitter recommendation for my son (8) and me for Friday. Looking at royal gorge area, looks like bighorn sheep canyon is the more family friendly spot? Not trying to overpay but also don't want some dude with his homemade raft either.

I went with Journey Quest on their half day Big Horn float this summer.. fantastic guides and very fair pricing.

Dont do the upper drift. Boring. Just do the last half

Just look online at the google reviews.

I've been several times but just can't remember who we used of the top of my head. Every time we went we had a great time.

Strongly recommend doing a full day. Just about the time you think you want a break, you'll stop a and they'll cook you lunch and take an hour or so break. Then you're ready to go again. Each time lunch was good hot food (like pasta, fajitas, etc.).

Bring appropriate clothing. We just wore old tennis shoes, swimsuit and I had a heavy long sleeve dry fit to keep warm. Felt like renting a wetsuit would have been over kill. Wife wore a 1-piece but had capris work out dry fit pants and a log sleeved dry fit on top. Water is pretty cold (although not as cold in Aug as it was in May). I brought a pair of cheapish sport sunglasses with a lanyard so I would not lose them (or if I did was not worried about the $$).

Bring some extra cash and tip your guide. The three times we went (years apart each time) the guides we had were great and made sure we all had a good time. There were 6 of us so we had a boat to ourselves which was nice. Me, the wife and 4 boys all worked great together navigating the river and following instructions so the guide took some more adventurous routes.

Honestly I thought they stopped by now b/c the water levels are so low, but maybe not.

FTR, My wife hates roller coasters, adventure stuff but she absolutely loved the white water rafting.

Just did this trip earlier this summer. Performance Tours. I've rafted with them a bunch in Colorado, they are absolutely great.

Phone: 1-800-328-7238
PerformanceTours.com

That's HuttoAg27 (my kid) and I in the front of the boat



We went in late June and it was running at 2950 FPS, they have to shut down/not run at 3200 FPS. It was a blast.

oh, forgot to add, bring a change of cloths and a towel (leave it in the car) to change into when you get back. They have private changing rooms to get out of your wet cloths. Much nicer to drive back to the condo in dry cloths.

Most of the outfitters have a lower age limit of 16 for the really challenging stuff like the trip I went on, so with an 8 year old you will be limited as to what you can do. The "moderate" stuff is still really fun.

I've ran a few trips with River Runners and always had a good experience. Don't know if they will let an 8yo run though. Browns Canyon is a good option though.

Noah's Ark out of Buena Vista…bunch of good Aggies working there.

Edit to add, agree with above…flows might be too low. I was fishing in the Ark this last weekend and didn't see any rafts…just north of Royal Gorge.

We used Royal Gorge Rafting right there in Canyon City.

We were there 2 weeks ago and there was still rafting.

We did Brown's Canyon and my youngest was 7. His job was to just tuck himself into the middle of the raft and hold on tight. He loved it. Used AVA. Would recommend. We went in June and the flow was terrific.

Thanks for the recommendations, performance was booked so went with Journey Quest and my son had a blast even though the flow was down. We're already planning on going back earlier in the season next year.
I did notice that we put in further up stream than a lot of other outfits. Highlight for the boy was when we beached the boat so we could swim around a little bit in a calm spot.

Done several trips with River Runners over many years. Highly recommend.

Second for Journey Quest. Went with them a few weeks ago.