Blue Sky Whitewater Rafting

The only outfitter to book a trip with on the Wild & Scenic Upper Clackamas River! If you want a taste of the NW you won’t be disappointed wild rapids with amazing NW scenery, love it!

I can’t say enough good things about Blue Sky and our whitewater rafting experience with them.
It was our first time Whitewater Rafting and we have two kids (10 & 7). The younger one is not a strong swimmer so we were worried about the safety of the event. We were reassured several times that the river is manageable and that everyone would be fine.
We chose the day long program (they have a half day option) and we were met with Mary that provided an overview of the day. Our lead rafting guide was Skip. He was great, pointed out the wildlife along the way, provided several stops for us to just jump in the water and swim.
The full day run included BBQ along the river (great stopping point).
Along the way, Skip informed us ahead of any rapids that might be a little challenging.
It was a great experience and we can’t wait to go back again. And yes, we will go back to Blue Sky for the next experience.

Great trip and a shout out to Skip, who was a great guide. Knew the river and knew how to make the trip fun. Mary took great photos along the way, which will keep the memories fresh.

Had a fantastic time!
Three hours on the beautiful Clackmas river with experienced and knowledgeable guides. Ask for Chris. He’s the best and most experienced.

This experience is a once in a lifetime and I’m so pleased I had Blue Sky to share it with as a first time river rafter. We got there an hour early and the big blue van was already there. Mary is so nice and greeted us right away and gave us the scoop on the experience we were about to have. The van drives you up to the starting point and then you raft back to the location you parked at. Mary takes awesome pictures for you for $ 40, but we just split the cost with others in our raft and emailed the pics over to them, save money that way! You don’t meet at an establishment but at the actual river. Mary will email you the quadrants via Google map, it’s very easy to get here if you just follow google maps. We toured the Clackamas river and it was so breathtaking. Really try and take the time to look up and all around you while rafting, it’s gorgeous. The entire trip in the raft was 3 hours, it was a little to long for me but still an amazing experience.
This location is extraordinary and all the tour guides know exactly what they are doing and will keep you safe. I have to say our guide, Skip was definitely the best. He was so informative and really made sure we were all comfortable and answered all of our questions with patience. He was so funny and such a humble guy, he treated us as friends and took good care of us. Thank you Skip!
I highly recommend Blue Sky rafting company to first timers as well as pros.
This experience was full of laughter, fun and some short lived scary moments (some steep dips) followed by laughter. It’s something you have to try at least once!

My family did the full day trip on the Clackamas and it was outstanding. This was not our first tip having gone rafting in California and Montana but this was the best so far. Well organized and we’ll run. The mid-​trip lunch was excellent. There were lots of rapids to run which made the trip go by quite fast. The guides were very knowledgable and provided lots of information about the region. The trip is perfect for families including children.
The trips are done in groups of rafts that go down the river together, afer you run a rapid it is fun to watch the others come down. The parking lot does have a toilet but it is a park service pit toilet, in other words stinky. It was clean however. One of our party had a disabled hand and still had no problem at all partcipating.
I would definitely use this company again.

There were five of us on the rafting trip. Skip was our guide. Super knowledgeable and definitely took us on a better ride and the six other boats on the river at the same time. He was super patient with the kids and showed them a great time. We did the half day trip which was about two hours. A great balance of easy ride and fun rapids. Would definitely do a longer ride next time and maybe class 3 – 4. Spent the rest of the weekend camping close by. A great trip!

We took the full day trip down the Clackamas River on 6÷12÷15 which included a lunch halfway through the trip. This was my second rafting trip and it was awesome! Chris was our guide and he was great — knowledgeable, funny, patient, and very skilled. My boyfriend has a lot of experience rafting and he agreed that Chris really knew what he was doing. Lisa was the driver, photographer, and chef for our lunch and she was great as well — so nice and took some really good pictures of us.
They offered wetsuits, booties, and splash jackets if needed (we only used the splash jackets and that was enough). Oh and life jackets were required and provided. They also let you jump off a cliff and swim in the deeper water if you want to. The biggest rapids we encountered were Class 3 and there were some spots where people got really wet — it was a lot of fun. According to our guide the water level was really low so we did scrape over some big rocks a few times but he always warned us ahead of time and everyone knew when to hang on.
I’m vegan and they accomodated this so much better than I expected. They said they are used to different dietary requests/​allergies and Lisa even offered to show me the wrappers from the food to verify the ingredient list. She grilled veggie burgers, zucchini, onions, and peppers and for the rest of the group they had their choice of grilled steak or chicken. There was also garlic bread, BBQ chips, chips and salsa, veggie platter with hummus, a kale salad of some sort that was awesome, watermelon, Oreos, Fudge Stripes, and dark chocolate for dessert along with water and lemonade.
Our group was 4 people total and Chris the guide made 5. We went on a Friday and saw no other boats on the river the whole time. We did pass 3 kayaks and a few fisherman but otherwise we had it to ourselves. (different than our trip last summer on the Arkansas river where it was wall to wall rafts going down the river) We saw some osprey and their nests, a kingfisher, two Canadian geese with their babies, and two different types of ducks. It was a beautiful day and I can’t say enough good things about Chris and Lisa. There is nothing more I could have asked for to make this trip any better. Thank you, Blue Sky and Chris and Lisa!

I went half-​day rafting with my papa in early June. I thought I needed a wetsuit, but no one used one (it was 80+ degrees outside). Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough demand for a full-​day trip, but the half-​day was awesome. Ask for the seasoned guide «skippy», as he knows his way around the river and also had some awesome stories to tell about hiking the Appalachian trail, working on a yacht, etc. The river wasn’t too crowded though there were some pups swimming in the water and youngsters drinking beer by the banks (really, it just added to the experience). I hope this company washes their life vests as they smelled pretty bad. Still, that’s not enough of a reason to give them one less star. Do this trip! It was both exciting and chill. :)

We had such an amazing day on the Clakamakus River. The view from the boat was amazing and the hardest Rapids «toliet bowl» and «Bob’s bowl» were very manageable with our very skilled guide, even for a first timer like me. We took this as a family trip and thoroughly enjoyed every aspect even the drive through Estacada.

What a great day!!! And a great way spend our 9^th anniversary. Our guide was Larry. He was funny, patient and so knowledgable about the river, flora, fauna and geology of the area. Had a good lunch half way thru the trip. Husband managed to fall out of the raft and bang his ankle up, may be making a trip to the ER tonight to finish off the evening. We also were paired up with two great ladies from Chicago who made the trip that much more fun.
Thanks Blue Sky!

SO MUCH FUN!
our guide was amazing, he had so many great recommendations of things to do around the area and in portland.
we did a full day on Clackamas river, it was a cloudy and foggy day but i couldn’t have think of a better day to do it.
we had a vegan in our group and when we made our reservation we requested that they make sure he had something to eat and they were totally cool with accommodating it all.
lunch time was amazing and so filling
you can purchase your pictures for $ 40 for a set (i think ours was 50 pics)
again i would HIGHLY recommend this company to anyone who wants to take a little trip out in nature.

Absolutely amazing experience, in Oregon… First off, I’m a world traveler & been on many excursions doing various activities. This tour was by far one of the best, out of my world travels. My friend and I decided to do the ½ day (pm) and thought the price for the excursion was excellent.
Being a Firefighter/​Paramedic, safety is obviously a first priority of mine. I can definitely say it’s their first priority as well. Josh, Luke, Ryan and Stephanie were safety minded, professional, and extremely outgoing.
After seeing the photos, we decided to purchase them too. The quality and quantity of the pictures were 5 star also. Unfortunately I didn’t catch the photographer name, but he’s part of them team and had the same qualities as the rest. GREAT JOB everyone… Keep up the good work

I did the half day trip with my family and it was great! Our tour guide (I think his name was Brian) was fantastic! He pointed out some wildlife on the river, and seemed to be very knowledgeable about the area.
We started off meeting the tour group, and got fitted for wet suits if we wished to have one (being from AZ I chose to get a wet suit and I was comfortable, I did get cold after we did some «surfing» but it was a comfortable cold).
After we got fitted for a suit we followed the tour van and dropped off our car (which was the end point) then got into the tour van and they took us up to the launching point. Once we got to the launching point they set up the rafts pretty quickly (I’d say we were in the raft within about 10 minutes), gave us a safety lesson and we were on our way!
My little sister went on the trip with us (she is 8) and she did fine, she didn’t have a paddle so she sat in the middle and still had a good time, so I think any little kid would love to go on the trip.
If I had the opportunity to do this trip again I would because of the great experience and the awesome staff!

Had the BEST time!!!
It was actually my first time whitewater rafting, so if it could have gone better, I wouldn’t know :)
My group had booked a half-​day and prepaid for it. The meet up time was somewhat early in the morning (ok fine 9:30… just a little bit early… no? just me?), and we were kiiind of late getting to the meet-​up spot… oopsies. All of us were in such a rush, having to run to get the rental car that same morning, forgetting to print out the forms, getting a little bit confused by the navigation, blah blah blah. Just so many problems lol.
Anyway, when we finally made it, the owner (or whoever we talked to… honestly we talked to like 4 different people, sorry I didn’t know who was who!) gave us all the info we needed and was quite friendly about it, despite the fact that we were late.
So we put on our suits, booties, etc etc. and got our forms turned in, got our paddles, had our «lesson», and got on with our rafting extravaganza. I’m not totally sure how long it took exactly for the half-​day rafting, but I can tell you that every minute of it was fun filled and action packed. Our rafting guide… shit what was his name. Josh? Sean? omg I’m sorry lol I was having too much fun to be remembering names. But he was helpful and friendly. At the end, everyone had a good time and were pretty soaked :)
And also the pictures were nice (and freakin hilarious). Our photographer was pretty funny lol.

I went in a half day trip this weekend, and it was fantastic! Pete (the owner & guide), John (the guide) and Matt (the photographer) were very knowledgeable, nice, welcoming, and sociable.
John was my guide, and he made it very fun. Let its try new things, made sure we were safe, and guided through some great rapids.
The view of the upper Clackamas River was gorgeous and peaceful.
Make sure you get the wetsuit and booties, you won’t regret it with the May weather.

Others have said it all. I chose Blue Sky amongst a few in the area based on great customer service initially –Tina, specifically– and the field crew did not disappoint either.
We went in late Aug, and apparently the water in that time of the year isn’t all that exciting to raft on, and this is one of the few reasons this was not a perfect maiden rafting trip for me. It mostly Class I and II rapids, and loads of chitchatting and games mostly. Our guide was great though, did a good job of trying to keep the four of us safe and entertained.

Awesome crew and patient with the ½ day afternoon ride and all of us. As noted on my tip, I really thought $ 48/​person was very reasonable. Would suggest to others of all abilities, young and old! Our guide, Dan was very flexible, knowledgable and kept us paddling right along. Thanks guys, we had a great experience!

Great experience. The scenery is beyond amazing. The guide was GREAT! Can’t wait to do it again!

Took a four person afternoon half day on the Upper Clackamas with only one-​day prior notice.
Reasonable price, great scenery, and a guide who wasn’t afraid to be creative and add some extra flair to the experience. In addition to Class III and a couple Class IV rapids, we got to cliff jump (~20 ft), «ride the bull» and play «wheel of fortune» to spruce things up.
Water was pretty cold in early June, and the $ 5 wet suit rentals were entirely necessary. Couple guys tried to swim during a calm stretch and had to clamber out because it was so cold.
Tips: Don’t wear any shoes cliff jumping that you could possibly lose. Don’t leave your key (they pick you up in their van to take you to the starting point) separate from the rest of your items. There’s a chance that they’ll change vans.
All in all, it’s a memorable bonding experience that ties together the beauty of Portland’s scenery and nature’s natural adrenaline rush.