Rafting in Idaho

The license plates may say “Famous Potatoes”, but Idaho’s true claim to fame should be the world-class whitewater rafting rivers. The consistently high quality and wide variety of rivers in Idaho makes it an impossible task to declare one “the best”. But there are a lot of great options ranging from a 6-day wilderness adventure, to a quick afternoon cooling off on the river. So, with that in mind, let’s try to find the best Idaho river for your next whitewater trip.

Before we get into all of our options though, let’s take a minute to call out the one Bear Valley Rafting calls home, the Payette River. Named after the French-Canadian fur trapper, François Payette, the Payette River is a major tributary of the Snake River, which in turn feeds into the Columbia River—the largest river in the Pacific Northwest— which in turn feeds into the Pacific Ocean. With spectacular variation in terrain, the Payette River has dramatically different boating, wildlife and vegetation zones, giving whitewater and nature enthusiasts countless opportunities for new experiences and views.

Rivers criss-cross Idaho, so you will be spoiled for choice, which also makes it impractical to cover every option. Instead, let’s look at some of the more popular and accessible options.

You may have noticed that the Salmon River shows up a lot on the list of contenders. Based on that alone, you could crown the Salmon River as the best whitewater rafting river in Idaho. But, because the Salmon offers such a wide range of whitewater rafting experiences, and there’s no way to account for all these options in one trip, we need to break up the Salmon River into the various options you will have available when planning your trip.

When you start your planning, you will need to determine what factors are most important to you. How much does a typical trip cost on one of these rivers? Are you looking for a short day trip or a five or six day wilderness adventure? How available are these trips? Some trips you can decide to go one day, and be on the river the next. Others are booked out two years in advance and require a lot of planning. Finally, how accessible are these trips? If you want to bring younger kids, or have folks with mobility issues, some of these trips will simply be a no-go.

So, for each river, let’s look at:

• Typical trip length
• The International scale of river difficulty
• The typical cost, which is largely determined by trip length
• How far is the launch point from Boise and McCall? Boise is the population hub for Idaho, and McCall is a popular tourist destination.
• Typical age ranges offered for these trips.