River Ranch Resort

Two words: exceeds expectations. We took a float trip here on July 3, 2014. This isn’t just a shack with a couple of beat-​up, overpriced, old canoes like you find in a lot of areas. This is a large, well-​organized operation with plenty of nice equipment and converted school busses to transport you to your destination. They also have a campsite and a really impressive camp store. Seriously, forget the stop at Walmart. Their store has everything you need. Competitive prices and a really nice selection of water shoes, clothes, camping equipment, snacks, and liquor. They have a small restaurant on site too and advertise that they can deliver pizza to your campsite.
After browsing websites from various outfitters in the area, we chose this place to take a canoe float trip. Their website is well-​designed, their prices are clearly indicated, slightly better than other places and they have special weekday rates. They transport you upstream to begin your trip so you end up back at camp whereas some of the others make you wait for a ride back to your vehicle at the end.
Renting the canoe was easy. I called ahead, but no reservations were necessary. With it being July 3^rd, I half expected them to charge us the more expensive weekend/​holiday rate, but nope, we still got the regular weekday canoe rate of $ 16 each. Kayaks were available but more expensive. We opted for the 5 mile/​2 — 4 hour trip which, as advertised, ending up taking us 2 hours and 20 minutes with us paddling most of the time. You could certainly stretch it out if you stopped and/​or just floated.
The river is super clear, and deep enough for the canoe, but not so terribly deep that you couldn’t see the bottom for most of it. There are plenty of places where you could swim or fish. We saw lots of fish and turtles. The river was really clean too. Aside from a beer can here or there we really didn’t see much trash. They even provided everyone with mesh trash sacks so it looks like that is paying off. We can’t wait to come on another float trip here!

We stayed at their 2^nd campground, which was by the Dollar General, a little farther away from the main general store and cabins. The rates were affordable and bussing everyone to the float trip was really organized. The staff was friendly and they even picked us up at the river early for $ 5/​person (the river was really low when we went, so we had to drag our boats by hand about half the time)– this was totally worth it. Everything was easy to get around and the campsite was spacious and quiet.
I would come again but maybe not to go on a float trip! :) The cabins looked very nice.

We had a great time at the resort, Trophy Husband and I shared a cabin with 7 other couples. The cabin was clean and spacious, we enjoyed the covered patio and the common deck as well as the grills outside. The bathrooms/​showers/​sink areas were in great condition and clean.
We found the staff mostly helpful, there are some younger peeps that sort of fly by the seat of their pants. This lead to some confusion with our group RE wristbands for the cabin and canoeing. We got it fixed but it took a bit. The store is well stocked with basics and booze, but pricy (as expected). Barbeque in the café however is reasonably priced and very tasty.
Here are some tips for others staying in a cabin:
— The twin-​size bunks are quite narrow, don’t think your going to share one of those with anyone.
— Bring your own sheets, pillow and blanket. Pack towels too.
— The kitchen is a table, lots of cabinets, small coffee maker, a fridge and an oven. That’s it. No pots, pans, utensils, paper products or cleaning supplies at all. Pack them if you want them.
Travel out to the river drop in point was a touch chaotic but there were hundreds of people being herded around. I thought it was handled pretty well and our bus driver was hilarious. We did the 5 mile float trip in a canoe. The river must have been down over 6 feet down but many spots were still deep and we only pushed the canoe a couple of times.
All in all it was a great trip and we look forward to going back next year!