Kings River Expeditions - White Water Rafting Trip

A couple of days ago, I promised a more detailed post about our awesome white water rafting trip.  Well, here it is!  This post will be mostly pictures because there are some awesome ones.  We booked our trip through Kings River Expeditions, and let me just say that from start to finish, they were absolutely amazing.  From the first time I called the office to ask all my "neurotic mom" questions, I was impressed.  Julie in the the office totally put all my fears to rest.  I was really nervous to do this trip with the kids, but they wanted to go so badly.  Once I talked to Julie, I felt MUCH better about the whole thing.

We arrived at Twin Pines Camp, where KRE sets up.  From the first minute we arrived, we felt welcome--and I even got a little excited.  They had chips and salsa ready for us, and then we got a little safety talk from Stacey.  I have to say, after the safety talk, my nerves were a little on edge.  Then we had lunch, changed into our rafting clothes, and hopped on a bus.  They drove us about 10 miles up river to the Granite Dike put-in.  Even the bus ride was a lot of fun.

Once we got to the put-in, we found out that Stacey would be our guide.  Stacey was such a perfect fit for our family.  She engaged the kids, asked them questions about our trip, and made them feel like an important part of the rafting team.  We started out with Justin and me up in the front of the raft.  After we hit our first major rapid and I saw that we were all still in the raft, I started to calm down.

Even Tatum was having a blast--no complaining or whining whatsoever.  We learned some basic rowing strokes, like "all forward" and "all back."  We even got to do some 360's down one of the rapids, which the kids loved.

Stacey was such a pro.  She's been rafting this river for over 15 years, so she took the time to teach us a little about the river.  It was actually really educational for the kids.  She also had funny stories about her rafting experiences, which kept the kids engaged during the lulls.

Most of the rapids had names, which Stacey said had been given to them by the YMCA expeditions in the 70's--like Tiger Tail, Banzai, Fang Tooth.  We loved hearing their names before we ran them.

It felt like we had actually conquered them once we made it through.  The looks on those kids' faces were priceless.

As you can see from the pictures, after a while Stacey let the kids move around.  Everyone got a chance to be in the front of the raft, although Connor and Rylee liked being up front the most.  The last big rapid we took was called Rooster Tail.  Stacey had us all move to the front of the raft, and Rylee sat in the very front.

This is our raft going into Rooster Tail.

This is our raft in the middle of Rooster Tail.  Notice anything?  Yep.  We're all under water.

And this is us coming up from Rooster Tail.  We were drenched, and the bottom of the raft was FULL of water.  It was like we were rafting in a bathtub for a while.  Rooster Tail was definitely our favorite rapid.

We made it!  From there, we had an easy float back to camp, where snacks and sodas were waiting for us.  Justin and I set up our camp under a big oak tree while the kids played ping pong and foosball.  Then KRE made us an amazing dinner of steak, chicken, salad, rice pilaf, bread, and Tatum's favorite--sprinkles with a little bit of ice cream.  All the guides served us, and they even took the time to talk to us and make sure we had a great time.

All in all, this was the highlight of our trip.  The kids are making plans to go again.  They loved it.  They informed us that it was even better than Grizzly River Rapids at Disneyland.  We can't wait to do it again!