Great trip! - This was a great company to use. They were well trained in rafting and had polite and professional guides. We had a blast! Yes, we would use them again!

Spectacular family adventure! - We had a great time on our raft trip in Salida! Our guide, Spencer, was amazing. He had so many fun facts and kept us entertained the entire time. The rafting trip was absolutely beautiful and took us through many different parts of Salida, including the downtown which was really fun. Spencer was spectacular and we would definitely recommend doing this as a family!

1/2 Day Family Float - WOW! We had a great time floating down the Arkansas River for a few hours with our guide James. So beautiful and relaxing! My husband and I took our 10 year old son and two of his friends on the float with us. This was their first time and they were skeptical but had a blast. James coached them on how to be safe and was great with all of them, telling jokes and teaching them about the water and the area. We will be back for sure and hopefully next time we'll do a class III-IV. Would definitely recommend Independent.

What a blast! Can't wait for our next IW adventure! - We booked the morning whitewater trip this past Sunday, hitting rapids up to Class 3 - Toilet Bowl, Seven Sisters, Zume Flume, Widow Maker... so fun and thrilling!! Jade was our Guide and we were all in awe of her incredible Guide skills - she was wonderful, a great teacher, and watching her steer with style was a thing to behold. We can't wait to return and go on another memorable adventure with Jade! Thank you all - we love your operation, staff and experience end to end. Enthusiastically yours, Team Sparkle Ponies

Family Float and Browns Canyon 1/2 Day Trips - We chose Independent Whitewater for a 1/4 day family float trip of six adults and five children, ages 3-12. Check-in and life jacket fittings were handled professionally and everyone was friendly. Our guides were knowledgeable, personable and most importantly, fun. They told us about the Drift In Bar and Grill, close to where our float trip ended, for post trip sandwiches and beverages. The food was delicious as were the margaritas. What a pleasant surprise. Be sure to check it out. This experience alone made us happy with our choice of Independent Whitewater and likely to return again. The return trip was a sooner than we thought. Some of the adults and the older children in our group wanted to go back for a more challenging raft trip, so two days later a smaller group of seven took the 1/2 day Browns Canyon raft trip. Again, the experience of our party was outstanding. The raft trip was more exciting than the float trip with enough rapids to challenge our novice paddlers. The kids and adults experienced a cliff dive about half way through the ride that they are still talking about. Mike P and the entire crew at Independent Whitewater gave us experiences to remember. This will be our first stop the next time we want to raft the Arkansas River.

Family fun - We did a 1/2 day float with our family including grandparents and grandchildren from 3-12. We were very impressed with the professionalism of the entire staff and had such a fun day! I would highly recommend this company…enough that we did a whitewater rafting trip a few days later!

Go with this company and ask for James - Our guide James was fabulous! We learned so much about the surrounding mountain ranges, geology of the area, recommendations for “local” attractions, mountain passes, and good food. James was so good with the kids. Next time we’ll do Browns Canyon for a bit of a thrill, but the leisure half day was a perfect first raft trip for our 2 granddaughters.

Best Rafting Outfitter we've ever used! - We have been coming here for the past 14 years and have done all the different trips. Every trip has been amazing and the guides are wonderful. This year we had Grant from Oklahoma as our guide (fellow Okie!) and he was so much fun and extremely knowledgeable. We won't go to any other rafting outfitter!

Excellent - My brother in law took a 5 yr old and two 4 yr olds on this trip in June 2022, we had an excellent time! Just enough excitement for the littles and the ride was great for the adults as well. Our guide James was fantastic, incredible knowledge of the area so I walked away feeling like I had the history, geology and even a ton of great advice on what to do in the area! And as a bonus the rest of the family joined us at the food truck area after the rafting and all 10 of us were able to get great food and drinks for the most affordable prices we saw our entire trip!

A great, relaxing float on the Arkansas River - Relaxed, fun, safe, and memorable float on the river, expertly and humorously guided by James. Highly recommended, in fact, we plan to take this cruise several more times this summer. Thank you Independent Whitewater and James!