Mad River Boat Trips

We had an awesome experience whitewater rafting on the Snake River. Jimmy Volin of Mad River Boat Trips was an awesome guide, He was kind and patient. He was humorous and provided great insights about whitewater rafting on Snake River. We had four other people in the boat and they were awesome. Simon and Pete from London and Jasper and his girlfriend are from Copenhagen. A must do in Jackson Wyoming.

Spent two weeks on a road trip from Seattle with two 12 year olds. Visited the Sawtooths in Idaho, Grand Teton NP, and Yellowstone NP. The raft trip on the Snake with Mad River was singled out as the highlight of the entire trip by my wife and daughter. Hard to argue. Despite the late season of our trip (late August) the river still had plenty to offer. Lots of rapids, a black bear cub, deer, eagle, osprey, and a marmot. We had a great time!

Terrible for large groups!
Let me start out by saying that the guides and rafting itself was great. However, if you are contemplating bringing a large group you may want to look for another event. We had a wedding party of 26 people over 2 days and Mad River requires a online waver for all participants to be filled out beforehand (we had some older members who aren’t savvy enough to be able to fill it out online). It’s this process that they used to bill us for unused seats. If you’re unable to get all your group members coordinated to fill this out online before the trip, they will bill you for any missing people. In our case, we had all our waivers filled out, called to confirm they were complete and even added people to our reservation and then were billed for missing people (even though there were enough people to need a 2^nd boat!)
Really soured a great trip and I’d recommend either another boating company or a different activity for large groups.

We LOVED our guide Ryan! Had a really enjoyable trip all around except for the cold wet ride back. I like that they gave us splash jackets to wear but I wish they weren’t already soaking wet when we first got them. The business location in Jackson is really nice and has everything you need for your rafting trip, they sell snacks, t-​shirts, rent towels and wetsuits. There are restrooms and changing rooms for when you get back from your trip!
There is a shuttle that takes you from the building to the river and I was surprised at how long the ride was, it took us at least 30 min! And the ride was a little bumpy. Also after your done rafting you have to walk about a quarter mile to where the shuttle picks you up and then it’s another 30 min ride back!
Our actual time on the river was so fun, a few spots are a little scary in a good way, but not big enough that I actual thought I would fall out of the boat. Do be prepared to get very wet!
It’s definitely a pricey endeavor, I’m not sure how other companies pricing compares.

I’ve done a lot of whitewater rafting, but my trip with Mad River stood out from most of them. I called to make reservations and the lady who answered, Kaitlyn (sp?) was courteous, knowledgeable, and really helpful. She set me and my family up for a half day trip, and once done I recieved an email with a link to waiver forms that we could sign electronically; nice touch that allowed me to avoid doing paperwork the morning of the trip. In the days preceding my trip, I received a couple of emails with important reminders about where to be and when, and most importantly what to wear.
The facility was fantastic — it was more of a showroom than boat house. My wife was able to pick up a cheap pair of sunglasses, and they rented us the footwear (wetsuit booties) that we needed for the trip. The breakfast they provided consisted of apples, a small breakfast burrito, instant oatmeal, pastries/​muffins and coffee. It was just ok, but far beyond what most provide.
Our trip occurred late in the season on a predictably mild section of the Snake River. The rapids were as advertised and were perfect for our 7 year old daughters first rafting trip. Our guide, KC was about as perfect as they come. He knew the river well, and educated us on the local wildlife that we encountered along the way (river otters, Osprey, Eagles, etc.). He filled the quiet time between rapids by asking about each of our trip members’ interests… «Raquel, what kinds of things do you like to do?» Almost every answer would launch a conversation that would fill several minutes before he’d move on to the next person. Excellent guide (and my wife thought he was cute but I didn’t see it)!
Even the bus driver that drove us to the put-​in spot and back was an great guide if you happened to be sitting within earshot of her as she called out things to see (Osprey nests and a 100 year old, 1 ton eagles nest).
Overall this was an excellent experience during every phase and I highly recommend this rafting company. I only wish they had operations in California where I live!

Our family of five (kids 12, 9, & 5) loved our dinner cruise with neighborly Nate as our guide and jovial James our van driver. The kids loved «riding the bull» on the front of the raft during milder rapids and doing the «wheel of misfortune» in the flats, standing on the raft’s front while we spun it in circles til they fell in the warm August 62 degree water. This is a very professional operation, and we all felt it was a good value, especially with the Groupon rate my wise wife found.

We had the best time on out boat tour. Our guides name was John Wayne, who I highly recommend. He kept the tour fun and entertaining. When we come back to Wyoming this will definitely be on our list of thing to do again! 100% satisfied!

We went as a family (7 of us + one stranger) and we had a BLAST! We did the small boat tour that lasted 3 hours. It is important to know that the 3 hours includes the bus ride — so you are actually on the water for only 1.5 hours or so. The water was really cold, but the rapids were the perfect intensity for us for a more «chill» ride. Our raft guide, Stackhouse, was fantastic and made sure we had a blast. Would recommend this day trip to anyone!

I recently went on an awesome small boat dinner trip. Think we hit every wave. Took a shore break and had a delicious elk brat dinner complete with side dishes and desert. One of the kids on our boat was cold & the guide hooked him up with some warm dry clothes at break. Overall tons of fun and wish I could do it again!

This place was exactly what was advertised and what I was expecting. My group had an excellent guide who put up with our shenanigans and even contributed to our humor by throwing out a joke at the end of the trip. We asked him to take us through the roughest rapids he could and he did. The food they serve you about ¾ through the ride was tops, the peach cobbler was exceptionally tasty. $ 80 for 3 hours and a solid lunch is well worth the price the only issue we encountered was that there are two locations which they neglected to tell us about. We stopped at the first one, apparently just an office, which caused us to almost miss our trip. They are super strict on timing and will leave you if you’re late.

So on June 10^th 2013, my girlfriend surprised me with a river rafting trip while going on a trip to yellowstone national park. The experience of being in rapids were amazing. Our tour guide was awesome. Mr. Stackhouse. The food that they served was, in my opinion outstanding. Coming from California, I wanted to take a memory with me back home. Unfortunately, their camera person had trouble with her camera and the picture that was «taken» of our group did not make it. I think they should have a backup plan for future incidents like this.

Rafted today with this group, fantastic time! James was the guide on our raft, and a total of 4 rafts were in our group. The 4pm trip included a dinner halfway through by chef Jimmy. What a great time, got totally wet, my husband fell off the raft at California Curves (but we recovered him quickly), dinner was great and met some great people. James told us so much about the wildlife and history of the Snake River, pointed out interesting sights and wildlife. Definitely a great outfitter I’d HIGHLY recommend.

Excellent guide Jim Stackhouse. Great whitewater rafting for the family. A lot of fun for the whole family.

Only my second white water rafting experience but it was wonderful in every way. First, being early in the season it was a bit cold and they had all the equipment we needed, wet suits, booties, and the usual life jackets at no extra cost. Our guide KC and his junior partner Will were great, fun friendly and gave us a sense of comfort and confidence.
We took a second, scenic, trip with Mad River as well. It certainly wasn’t as exciting but we saw several bald eagles, a moose with calf, osprey… And it was perfect for my folks who are older and not ready for the adventure of white water. Again Mad River had all the equipment we needed. It was a bit cool with threatening clouds when we took off. They had great rain gear for each of us in case we needed it.
I highly recommend this group!

Picked Mad River from the Unilocal reviews. It is the biggest in town and the price was reasonable. We had Jade and she was awesome. She is a great guide and made the trip fun. It’s very beautiful and the rapids we went over we super fun. It was my fiances first time and he wants to go again.
Highly recomend getting their booties. Best $ 4 I spent. Kept my feet warm. I also recomend getting in the front of the boat through at least one rapid, it is SUCH a great experience seeing it up close. Don’t be affraid to ask to move up for a second, it’s your trip too!

Today we want river rafting for my last day here in Jackson and I didn’t really expect much beside getting a free rafting trip. The place is close to Smith supermarket and all of the staff were pretty friendly. I took the 10am trip and their bus came and pick us up and it was a pretty nice bus too. It took like 40min to get to the snake river and it wasn’t that crowed because it was the start of the day for them. We had 14 people on the raft and 8 people had to paddle. At first I didn’t feel like paddling so i didn’t volunteer myself and all of the people there grab the paddle and there were 1 extra one and and another old man was about to get it so i let him and all the people were staring at me so i took the paddle from him instead. lol
Anyway they choose me and another guy to lead the raft in the front and everyone in the front got the most wet plus felt like a wet dog after a few runs. I actually almost fall out twice because i was wearing slipper and i couldnt get my feet into the raft but lucky i made it thru. Everyone on the raft were so nice and easy going and i meet some great older people w/​tons of stories and just love getting to know where you are from and everything in between. I had a great time and I have to admit it, i would come back again.

I haven’t been on a white water trip down the snake in several years. Having several family members out to our house in JH we thought it a good idea to organize a trip. In the past we have gone with several different outfits, but I can comfortably say that Mad River is absolutely the best in the Valley.
Now the thing about white water trips is that a lot of your experience depends on two things, when in the season you go and your raft guide. Each guide has their particular routes they like to hit which can translate into how «wet» you get. The wetter the better I say when it comes to white water.
We had a guide named Wayne and he absolutely rocked. He gauged the skill end experience level of all people in our raft and positioned people really well around the raft. We were able to generate a lot of speed going into the rapids which translated into big splashes.
the other great thing about Mad River is that they do not over load their rafts. Crews are limited to 8 people which affords each person a comfortable, un-​squished, trip down the river. Weighting a raft down does not guarantee you will get bigger rapids. Speed is a big factor as well.
A knowledgeable guide, a comfortable ride, and very easy sign up at the start make Mad River the best in the Teton Valley.

Now I have never been white water rafting before so while I was out in Jackson, we decided to make a day of it. First we arrived at Mad River HQ and signed our releases and were given the option to rent wet suits. This is highly recommended for people who don’t want to get cold. While I have never been white water rafting, in the Marine Corps I was fortunate enough to have experienced small boat recovery and insertion and opted not to get the wet suit.
For those that have never worn one, they are uncomfortable and heat up real quick. They also don’t keep the water out so I opted to pass on the wet suit and I had my own booties so I was ok.
From their our bus took us to the drop site and we were oriented with our guide. We were a huge group so we were able to get on boats with our friends. «Mowhawk» the name we gave our guide, was a great sport and allowed us to really enjoy our adventure. The river was running high so our trip last a little under two hours.
This is definitely a must but be aware, white water rafting can be dangerous. During our trip, I was tossed two rows back and another buddy was tossed from the boat. But if you listen to your guide and travel with people you can trust you will be fine.

AWESOME! SUPERB!
Wet Suit rental was only $ 6! (trust me the river is cold you’re going to wish you splurged)
Great guide, nice lunch (midway), felt safe and enjoyed rafting through the Snake River. Would definitely go again and wouldn’t even think about going with another company unless I was going to head down the river in a kayak.
Date Rating: 10
Pick up Scale: 2
Strong Suggestion: bring a waterproof camera and make sure your glasses won’t fall off.