Rafting the Arkansas River

We took a double-activity tour -- rafting the Arkansas and then riding the Royal Gorge Railroad. Rafting came first, and here we are at Pinnacle Rapid put-in, a BLM facility along Highway 50 west of Canon City. Our rafting company is Arkansas River Tours.



Our guide, Dan, is all smiles as this is his final run on the Arkansas. During the winter, he is on Copper Mountain Resort's ski patrol and is an EMT, but next week he heads to West Virginia to guide rafts down the New and Gauley Rivers -- true big water.



Ellen mirrors his big smile. This is her first whitewater raft adventure and she has taken to it quickly, as seen in her smile following the first rapid -- which was a mere warm-up to the class 3 and 4 rapids to come.



This river runs as much as 2900 cfs (cubic feet per second) in the spring and really rips along at a fast rate, but today's 650 cfs makes it a slower but more technical river, as the guides must get us around continuous rock combinations which are under water at the higher flow levels.



Our run today is 9+ miles in length and will take about 2 hours. It was a lovely 75 degrees air temp, and even the water isn't horrendously cold. We naturally got wet from wave action, but noone on either raft in our party became an involuntary swimmer.



We are rafting through Bighorn Sheep Canyon and the more demanding and technical rapids we'll be tackling have names such as Prelude, 3 Rocks Falls, 5 Points, Spikebuck, Shark's Tooth, and Last Chance. Ever notice how many names of rapids are ominous sounding? Part of the hype, I reckon.



The river has Highway 50 on one side and a rail line on the other, though the rail line is only used near Canon City, hence the empty and idle coal cars we see in the photo below, just sitting around as if they are on a siding.



All in all, it was a very fine morning on the river. Or as my paddling buddy, Mike Fox from San Antonio, always exclaims sometime during a paddle, "Another lousy day on the river!" Of course, he means the exact opposite.