Rolling Thunder River Company

Went with thirteen friends to celebrate our birthdays and it was also my first white water rafting experience. Richard was our guide and he was hilarious.

Our family rafted on 8÷9÷15 and we did the upper with Osprey. We had a wonderful time. Osprey was great, he knew the river very well and was a pleasure tone with.
Great job all.

We’ve been to Rolling Thunder 2 times in the last 2 years, and we had an excellent experience each time. Last year, Will Coggin was our guide, and he really knows the river well, was very friendly!!! We asked for him again this year, and luckily he was working on the day we signed up. Will took us into some aggressive areas of the river, but we felt safe the entire time. I strongly suggest you ask for Will as a guide.

The waiting about killed this experience (we were told to arrive at 2:00 and didn’t hit the water until 4:30) but the rafting and guides made it totally worth the wait. Great bunch of folks and the rafting was fun for the whole family!

This was a great, fun, and adventurous experience for me. I have never gone white river rafting before this and I had a blast! But, even though our guide was very experienced and got us through the ocoee river without any troubles, his personality was very self absorbed and he seemed to be focusing more on the river guides than the people in our boat. But I am sure not all the guides are like this. This was a great experience, if u have a chance you should definitely go.

The White Water Rafting experience was amazing. We had Brett as our guide and he definitely knew the river inside and out. Brett ensured that no one fell out of the raft. If you go rafting here ask for Brett. All of the guides seemed knowledgable but if you are a first timer like myself and feel a little nervous about the trip you will take comfort in knowing that Brett is ex-​navy. Even when I decided to ride the bull I didn’t fall out of the raft. We did the middle of the river which seemed to go by quick probably because we were all having a ball. It was really nice to be able to get out of the raft and swim in the river for a portion of the trip. I would suggest bringing a disposable water proof camera if they still sell them. You don’t want to risk loosing anything too valuable. Someone actually lost a shoe in the water which our guide recovered. At the end of the trip you are able to buy a CD that contains pictures of your raft. I believe the first CD is 25 bucks and each one after that is 12.50. However, there are some moments that I wish I could have captured myself. The trip was definitely worth the money. I wish that I would have brought cash to tip our guide. I didn’t know that it was customary to do so. White Water Rafting is something that everyone should do in their lifetime. It is a real adrenaline rush.

We had an amazing time. Our guide Coach is very experienced. He expertly maneuvered the rapids. It was continuous fun the entire 5 miles. This is the best rafting trip we’ve been to so far.

Rolling Thunder is the best rafting company around! They stress safety as much as fun. We have rafted the middle and upper Ocoee with them for the past 8 summers and I would not consider using another company. RT guides are the BEST! Ask for BLT– you can’t go wrong!

Good vibes coming from this place. My family and I went in a boat with Chris and it was awesome. Way better than the Colorado river.

Great trip. Took the family and friends on a trip ⁸⁄₇. What a great experience. Our guide Will was fantastic! We had a mix of experienced rafters and first timers. Will was great with making everyone feel comfortable and even found a few ways to make the trip exciting. There was even a break in the trip where we jumped in the river and floated down for a while.
Great staff from the start to finish. Definitely recommend Rolling Thunder for anyone visiting the blue ridge area.

Myself and 5 of my friends were feeling a little adventurous, and landed on the idea of trying white water rafting. There are several rafting companies that operate on the Ocoee River (which is about an hour and a half drive from ATL), which made it very difficult to choose one. After extensive research, we landed on Rolling Thunder, and could not have asked for a better experience.
Like previous reviews will tell you, all of the employees at Rolling Thunder are extremely friendly and outgoing, and they will all go out of their way to ensure that you have a great experience. Our guide, James, was no exception. He made sure that all of us non-​experienced rafters had a safe and enjoyable time. He shared stories with us and gave us some background on each of the rapids we went through, which made the trip even more interesting.
The river itself is beautiful — no matter what part you’re on (we did the double trouble tour, so were able to see the upper and middle), there are incredible, scenic views. We also had the opportunity to swim in the river at two points during our trip. This was awesome and quite refreshing in the 95 degree weather — if your guide gives you this option, do it!
Fortunately, none of us fell out of the raft — although after feeling how refreshing the water was during our swimming breaks, we may not have minded it! The trip lasted approx. 5 hours, which may seem like a long time, but none of us were ready for it to be over.
Thank you Rolling Thunder for a great rafting experience!
TIP: Take turns sitting in the front of the raft. It’s very exciting being the first ones to see the upcoming rapids, and the experience is really different in each section of the raft.

BUCKET LIST ITEM COMPLETED!
Once you arrive at the Rolling Thunder Facility, you are instantly greeted by the friendliest people in the world. It seems like a family run organization that takes care of people, because these folks were the best.
The bus ride to the drop in was pretty awesome too. They have an interesting mix of guides. You have a few folks for comedy and then (I wish I could remember his name) there was one gentleman that knows just about everything about the area. We had a little mini-​history lesson/​tour on our way to the drop in.
Once at the drop in, the fun started. Our guide, Paul, was AMAZING!!! I would Highly Recommend him, he is the right amount of funny, guidance, and he takes his job very serious. At one point, I fell out of the boat and Paul was able to get back in the boat in no time. (Mind you I’m 6’6″ and around 240 lbs.)
Once the river was done, we drove back to the center and purchased the pictures. They apparently have folks stationed all along the river taking the most amazing photos of your family. It was amazing because Paul knew where they were and made some hilarious faces in some of the photos!
I can’t recommend this experience enough to folks. I can’t recommend Paul enough.
If you miss out on this, you are a Missing Out on a Bucket List Item!

A spontaneous, quick-​pull-​over-​now, adventure turned out to be one of the highlights of our weekend trip to the Blue Ridge Mtns. Rolling Thunder staff are laid back but knowledgeable and friendly and there are so many options. Whether you are looking to float the day away, get your kayak on, or simply spend a leisurely hour in a tube, this is THE place. Get going!

The guides for this place are phenomenal. I’ve been to Rolling Thunder twice — once floating the Olympic Course and once floating the middle. They rave about the Olympic Course but I personally prefer the middle. It seems to have more consistent rapids.
The first trip I went on had a bus that broke down. We waited for close to an hour for them to transfer all of the people and the rafts. They eventually made it right for the customers by providing them with free pictures of the float. Thinking it was just a fluke I decided to bring some of my friends for the experience.
The second trip I booked for a group of my friends coming in town from Texas. The float and the guide were both great. The problem came when we got in the bus again. This time it wasn’t mechanical — it was just inconsiderate. We were half way back to the office when a group that booked the entire day called and said that they decided they didn’t want to do the second half of the day. Rather than making them wait while the bus dropped us off the bus turned back to get them. When we arrived the rafters were eating lunch and we waited in the parking lot for them to be done or collect enough food to eat on the bus.
The rest of us were ready for lunch — a little tired and ready to get back. We also had an agenda for the day that included some afternoon activities — the reason we didn’t book a full day in the first place. All told we spent more time in the bus then we did on the river.
When I shared my frustration with the office they said «I’m real sorry» — but that was it. I expected that they would do something to make it right. Not sure what I was expecting but a disingenuous apology was not on the list.
There are a few other options for floating the river — I would just recommend that you look around. We will not be returning.

We did the double trouble white water rafting and it was AWESOME! Our guide, David, was fantastic and has been a river guide for 10 years. For only $ 80 this was by far the best money we have spent on outdoor activities. It was our first time ever rafting and we got some awesome pictures from the company too! I recommend bring a water camera with you on the trip to capture some of the rapids you just went through. We even had a 12 year old in the boat with us and we did the Olympic class 5 rapids!!! This is a must on your trip :-) We stayed in Blue Ridge at a fantastic B&B. It was about a 15 min drive to the center.

Absolutely loved our trip down the middle section of the Ocoee. Chris was our guide and he made every twist and drop as exciting as it could get. There were nine of us on the trip and we’re still talking about a week later. Great company, GREAT PEOPLE!
I’d highly recommend Rolling Thunder River Company.

So… other than the fact that we were pelted with rain, the weather was freezing, and we almost flipped and died, I’d highly recommend this company. Our guide, Gabriel, was luckily experienced and got us safely down the river. Although we were not expecting it, we had level 5 waves down the river and there were many others that were flipped off and became «swimmers» with a guide that «didn’t have a good day.» Needless to say, my sister, her fiancé, my boyfriend, and his brother got a once-​in-​a-​lifetime experience of the Ocoee River and quite frankly, lucky to be alive. We were definitely not bargaining for such a rough ride, as only one of us had ever done this before. The day was filled with adrenaline and paddling/​ducking/​hanging on for our lives. I wish I was exaggerating, but when we nearly flipped and got pinned on a rock on a 5, we all proved our Spiderman skills to be on par and surprised even our guide. Thank you, Gabriel!

We booked a trip as a group of 4, and we had Amanda as our guide. As we were a smaller group, we did get our own raft. This made for a more exciting experience as the river will toss you around. The trip was exhilarating, and we had a wonderful time! There was some slight chaos while at the outpost waiting to get our safety briefing, but we boarded the bus and headed to the Ocoee shortly.
The trip was more physically demanding than I first thought. I would not recommend taking the trip if you are not comfortable with at least a little physical activity. The olympics course is amazing, and Amanda did a great job of coaching us through it.
I would highly recommend to anyone for a day trip from Atlanta. We took the 2.30 departure time, and we ultimately came back to the outpost around 7.00pm. Plan for more time than you would expect, and I would take the earlier trip if you are worried about getting home too late.
All in all, this was a great experience that we plan on repeating!

Great trip! Rolling Thunder is by far one of the best in the area! Guides always can make the difference and thunders guides always make it interesting!

This place really gets a 5 star for the rafting experience. Our guide was the BEST.
However, it seems as if there has to be some glitch in the system most days.
Hopefully, you won’t have to deal with Janet when you go here. In my opinion she’s the only downplay to dealing with this establishment. I couldn’t believe that she cussed at my friends 22 year old daughter, and then had her kicked out the building when she cussed back. LOL, bet Janet’s ass has never dealt with a young black female that isn’t scared to give it back to people the same way they give it to her.
We were about 10 minutes late for our rafting experience, and was attempting to get Janet to explain to us what our options were. She basically told us that she «didn’t do anything but take our money», once again we asked what our options were and she began to tell us how we could tube ourselves down the river and the water would only come up to our ankles. We told here we didn’t want to do that. She went on and on about how our options were limited but we could come back the next day, so my friends daughter asked her «if we don’t come back are we going to still be charged, or only charged the deposit we had already been charged.» For whatever reason, Janet didn’t appreciate being furthered question and got irate and cussed at the young lady. The young lady then began to display herself in the same manner as Janet had and next thing we knew two guys came out a side office after Janet started screaming GET OUT, GET OUT RIGHT NOW.
The young lady did leave, but of course my friend and I stood our ground, because it was my friends money that was in questioned and since she hadn’t cussed Janet, nor had I, we stood in place until we got the answer to any questions we needed an answer to.
Janet can use a refresher course in learning how to deal with customers the way she wants to be dealt with.
WE did go back the next day for our rafting trip and it was phenomenal and thankfully Janet wasn’t there that day.