Kaweah Whitewater Adventures

My boyfriend and I had never been whitewater rafting before, and as you can imagine we were pretty stoked. It was only $ 100 for a ¾ day trip class IV and it was completely worth it, The staff was great and I felt completely safe in their hands. Everything we needed was provided. I would recommend doing what we did, there are other options of the full day and the only thing different from ours was just the included lunch (not worth it).

My boyfriend and I went over Memorial Day to Kaweah Whitewater; he had never been rafting, and I’d been twice before. We went on the full day trip (Class 4+), and it was an awesome day with great staff! They were very nice yet professional and always looking out for safety. I shopped around a lot looking for the best deal for white water rafting, and Kaweah white water is definitely the best deal within a reasonable drive from Los Angeles. They even threw in wet suits and booties for no additional price.
After the fact, I would recommend the half day trip because it’s really ¾ of a day, and you get to go on the best rapids in that timeframe anyways. The full day includes another hour or so of rafting and a lunch (including vegetarian options). The full day trip was great, though, so either way, you can’t go wrong.

I had wanted to try a higher class white water rafting and after wafting through numerous websites, the Google finally lead me to this nice discovery. The owner’s name is Frank and the phone number on the website leads to his direct phone line.
Frank was fantastic in getting all my questions answered («Do you guys have enough wetsuits?» «Helmets provided?» «Lunch?» «So…exactly how scary is a Class IV+») and organizing the trip for our group of ~30 people. Do make sure to make your reservations a month or more in advance to secure your desired date, especially if you have a huge group like we did. I basically gave Frank a very very rough estimate from the start and up until a week before (actually, even the day of), the numbers kept changing. Although I’m sure it drove him crazy, he never expressed it and didn’t charge me extra when there were some last minute cancellations. So 5 stars for being extremely accommodating, professional, and patient.
5 stars for the price. Nearly every other rafting company charged $ 170+ for a weekend full-​day rafting trip on the Kaweah River so KWA’s $ 115 (this was after the group discount) was a true bargain.
Oh, and lunch was scrumptious. Yes, I was wet, tired, and hungry but even so, the sandwiches were served on tasty multi grain bread with generous portions of veggies and deli meats. Complimented with potato salad, chips, cookies, watermelons and an array of drinks that included tea, lemonade, and water. This was my third rafting trip and I’ve never had a fancier lunch.
I went with Jessica L. and basically can ditto everything she wrote regarding the actual details of our day. I was on a different raft, however, and our guide was definitely not as experienced on this particular river as the others but though there were a few rough patches (esp in the beginning), it turned out just fine.

We got some amazing guides from this white water rafting tour company… locally owned and operated, its a bit cheaper than other rafting companies. I admit, I initially did have my doubts… the meeting place they’ve established is a heap of old buses and shambles of camp gear. When all 29 plus of our crew left on a bleach white old school bus, it uh… broke down half way from the meeting place (which is the end of the Class IV rafting route) to the starting point of our rafting route. The driver then sort of just left us there, without a word, catching a ride with a passing jeep and stuttering off into the middle-​of-​nowhere distance.
Yeah, we freaked. But, he actually came back shortly with yet another school bus and carted us successfully to the starting point.
The guides were just fantastic… we had Mike. Him, with his twin Scott, were the lead guides on this tour and they were incredibly knowledgeable and directed us near perfection. They easily saved us when we did happen to be thrown overboard (hey, it was a Class IV PLUS), knew the names and Class values of each of our White Water points (note, got owned by the «Ostracizer»), let us in on some of their personal history with Three Rivers, pointed out some local flavor spots such as their own homes, a local ice cream store that made their own creations, a dive bar… and they brought along their adorable river rafting dogs Zia and Papa (by far, Papa was my favorite), who journeyed with us for most parts of the ride.
They know their stuff, and I recommend. The fact that they could accommodate all of us, in itself, was all-​star. Major thanks to Annie W. and our friend Stevesome for finding and making arrangements with this place.