Whitewater Rafting on the Middle Fork of the American River

Sacramento, United States of America

Take a one day white water rafting adventure on the Middle Fork of the American River. Experience summer time class 3/4 river rafting on this 18 mile section of the Middle Fork American river. Your rafting tour will include experienced, knowledgeable and super fun river rafting guides, a riverside buffet lunch along with all transportation to and from the river meeting area. Rafters need to be in good physical condition and on the adventurous side. Swimming ability is required for all river trips on the Middle Fork.

Your Middle Fork American River rafting adventure begins at 7:30 am at your base camp meeting area. Your guide will be there to check you in and answer any questions about the days activities. Once everyone is checked in you will board a nice air conditioned van and take a very scenic drive of a little over an hour to the launching area. On this drive you will drive past the confluence of the South Fork American river and Middle Fork American river (confluence is where two rivers meet and become one).

Once at the put in, your guide will help you with the river equipment necessary for the river rafting adventure. Then you will have a river safety orientation, divide up into groups, assign the guides and get on the river. The action starts right off the bat with “Good Morning Rapid”, if you are not awake you will be after this soaking rapid. The river continues to build excitement until you get to the infamous “Tunnel Chute”, where gold miners back in the 1880’s blasted a diversion chute and tunnel into the rocks to divert the river around and into Horseshoe Bend. At that point, they then were able to mine the river for many, many ounces of gold.

After completing the “Chute” you head down some more exhilaration rapids and finish the morning session with Kanaka Falls, a class 4 steep drop that requires expert steering from everyone in the raft.

You now head into the Middle Fork American river’s quiet side, a 7 mile scenic float through one of the most beautiful river canyons in California. You will stop halfway into the 7 mile section for lunch at a primitive sandy beach right on the river. Your guides will then pull the lunch coolers out of the rafts and begin to prepare a wonderful assortment of lunch items.

Once back in the rafts you slowly drift down and listen for the sound of “Ruck-A-Chucky Falls”, the beginning of your next set of challenging class 4 rapids. The first one is called “Chunder” an 8 foot pour over that gets everyone’s heart pounding. It’s then out of the rafts as the guides portage (line the rafts around) the 25 foot falls, you might even witness some of them taking the rafts over the falls themselves! You then load up the rafts and head down 3 miles of a super fun class 4 rapids until you get to the heart pounding “Bambi Falls”, where you are welcome to cool off with a swim through a very easy slow class 2 rapid.

At the end of the day, your van will be waiting for you with cold drinks and snacks for the 40 min ride back to the meeting area. Your guide’s will be there to thank you for coming and give you photo coupons good for money off your rapid photo purchase, if you wish.