Royal Gorge Rafting Trips
High-adrenaline adventure rafting, close to Colorado Springs
The Arkansas River flows near Colorado Springs, outside Canon City, beneath 1,000 foot canyon walls. Dive into class III to V rapids through the heart of the magnificent Royal Gorge, soaked to the skin and grinning. If you’re looking for white water rafting you’ll never forget, we can craft a trip just for you. Our Royal Gorge rafting trips are just the ticket for a classic Colorado adventure.
Royal Gorge Rapids
If you’re looking for a heart-pumping whitewater adventure, then look no further than the Royal Gorge. This stretch of the Arkansas River is peppered with exciting class III-V rapids with names like Sunshine, Sledgehammer, and Boat Eater. These rapids are steep meaning there is more whitewater, continuity, technicality, but ultimately more excitement. The Royal Gorge also has double the gradient of other canyons such as Bighorn Sheep Canyon that runs at about 35 feet per mile. Although the faster pace makes rafting in the Royal Gorge more exhilarating, it is highly recommended that anyone looking to take the plunge down this exciting stretch of the Arkansas river be extremely comfortable in water and know how to swim.
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Raft through the heart of the Royal Gorge
Up-close canyon views
Wet and wild adventure
Royal Gorge rafting is pure, heart-pounding adventure
Adventure awaits
If you live on adrenaline and want some close-to-home adventures, the Royal Gorge rafting trip is the one for you. Just about an hour from Colorado Springs, you’ll find yourself in white water a thousand feet beneath the Royal Gorge Bridge.
You’ll definitely taste extreme Colorado white water rafting as you explode over class III to V rapids with names like Sunshine Falls, Sledgehammer, and Boat Eater. In between these, soaked and exhilarated, you’ll see astounding geology, witness local wildlife, and feel the history of the Arkansas River and the Colorado Mountain West.
Because we hand-craft each of them with your feedback, no Royal Gorge rafting trip is like any other – one reason this trip is always a favorite.
Half and full-day rafting trips
Echo Canyon also offers a full-day Royal Gorge white water rafting trip. This one begins slowly, with a float that calmly escalates through class II and III white water rapids in the Bighorn Sheep Canyon. After a riverside gourmet style boxed lunch (vegetarian option available), and some time to take in the stunning beauty of the Royal Gorge, you’ll launch into excitement you’ll never forget, right in Colorado Springs’ backyard.
To take on these adventure-class Royal Gorge white water rafting trips, we recommend guests are 14 to 18 years of age, in good physical condition and able to swim well. Water levels dictate the minimum age; typically the peak levels occur in mid-June. During high water flows the minimum age is usually around 16 years of age.
Our half-day rafting trips depart from Echo Canyon headquarters daily at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. The full-day rafting trips leave daily at 10:00 a.m.
The Scenic View Along Colorado’s Royal Gorge
In 1878, a construction crew from the Santa Fe began leveling a railroad line that began at the entryway of the gorge. The Rio Grande railway raced this crew to the site but fell behind them by just a few hours. This became a two-year battle of graders that became infamously known as the Royal Gorge War. Rafting by this railroad line while a train is passing by at 12 mph simultaneously can only be expressed as… priceless!
In 1929, the construction of the Royal Gorge Bridge initially took form. This is attributed to the authorization of the building of the bridge by the city officials of Canon City. This bridge was constructed at 955 feet in the air from the clearance of the Arkansas River below. Passing underneath the bridge while on your Royal Gorge white water rafting trip and looking up directly at its sheer size and mechanical strength is absolutely… breathtaking!
