Last minutre 1 week river float/raft hiking trip ideas?
 

I just remembered I have a Southwest voucher I need to use by mid July, so this will be a last minute trip. My locations are limited to where they fly out of Houston. Portland, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, Sacramento all come to mind as starting points. I'm thinking of a taking a week and am looking for ideas for locations that would offer river float and raft options - mostly float - I'm not looking for a rapids tour, although a day on medium rapids would be fun. Maybe an area where there are multiple day trip river options? Even a road trip with stops is doable! Y'all have been SUPER with recommendations every time, so THANK YOU in advance!!

Lots of rivers in and around Portland Oregon. I'd definitely put that before Seattle where things are not as readily accessible or near the city.

Moved to the US Forum.

I suggest the McKenzie River- not far from Eugene. You can do a full day or a half with a variety of how wild you want it to be. There are many lodges to stay at along the river- or you can even stay in Eugene and drive to meet spot.

Or Bend Oregon is fun too. Look into staying at Sunriver Resort. There is a place to book raft trips on the property.

I did the south fork of the American River outside of Sacramento with another friend, but our trip was over a weekend, not a full week.

One thing you have to worry about in the Sierra foothills (various forks of the American River, the Toulumne, Cherry Creek, etc) - the snow melt currently is EXTREME and the water is running very high/fast and very cold. Dangerous conditions

Look at the Grand Canyon. With one week you could do a motorized full canyon trip of ~200mi.

>>I’m especially intrigued with Sacramento - maybe a 2 day river adventure<<

Those are the streams I mentioned -- high flows and dangerous conditions. But by July that should be much better and they would be great. LOTS of options including a drive up to the redwoods/coast - or Lake Tahoe -- great kayaking there.

Lots of good advice already.

You might look at a two-destination trip in Oregon. There's white water rafting (several operators) out of White Salmon WA, across the Columbia River from Hood River OR, and all sorts of water based activities in Hood River itself - kite boarding, windsurfing, SUP, kayaking... it's a huge center for all that. Of course you'd transit the Columbia Gorge en route from Portland airport.

Then you could drive south through the Hood River Valley, past Mt. Hood (maybe ride the chairlift up to the permanent ice fields where they'll still be skiing) and south to Bend (via amazing Smith Rock) for more river action on the Deschutes. You could even do the trifecta by returning to PDX via the McKenzie River and Eugene/Springfield, depending on how much time you have. Map - https://goo.gl/maps/KV1sRU9wetFm79Q76

I like Sunbum's idea's too. I was just thinking closer to Portland, but these would make a great trip for a week. We have done white water rafting in Bend many times and love it. Suncountry Tour's there is excellent, and they have other trips as well including on the McKenzie. I have not done anything on the McKenzie besides fish and hang out at my grandparents cabin there, so can't comment on specifics, but it is a beautiful area.

Here is a link to rafting outfitter close to Eugene

https://www.helfrichoutfitter.com

The McKenzie has a couple of options - there is a nice 1/2 day mostly float with a few gentle rapids and another float with some big rapids. I have done both. Both fun but I am not into adrenaline rush so usually choose the more gentle one.

just to whet the appetite:

Sand Harbor:

North Fork of the American:

Middle Fork:

South Fork:

This is totally outside the box.
But if you decided to do 2 different river trips and plan to fly in/out of Seattle, maybe one river trip and one kayak trip in the San Juans.
https://www.outdoorodysseys.com/sea-...urs/all-tours/
This is a bucket list item for me but I hope to take one of their multi-day trips at some point in time. There are speciality trips, like their 3 day craft beer, wine, yoga, etc. themes. Reviews are great too.

So many great ideas, San Juan Kayak Tour is the winner!!! I'm working on booking it now!!! Thank you! I'll write it up on my return.

There are several outfitters that do float trips on the Rogue River ranging from 4 hours to 4 days. Most of them are in the Merlin Oregon area. The Rogue River has many more miles of wild territory than the Deschutes which flows through Sunriver and Bend. You can also take a jet boat tour up the Rogue from Gold Beach.

Oh, good! I think you'll really enjoy it! I recommended it a few years back (to a lady with "five" in her screenname) and they loved it! I really need to get up there during the summer months to finally take that trip! At one time they had the 3 day kayak with a B&B combination (instead of camping). I really should have done it then!

There are a couple of whitewater opportunities you could do on the way to Friday Harbor, if you have the time. One is a big water (Class IV-V) outing on the Skykomish River, based in Gold Bar WA along US 2; the other is on the Skagit ("ska-jit") river starting on the edge of North Cascades National Park. WA 20 runs from the North Cascades straight to Anacortes, where you'll catch the ferry to Friday Harbor. You could do one or the other (or, I suppose, both) without any great detours.

After the San Juan kayaking, travel south to (amazing) Deception Pass, the narrow gap between Fidalgo Island (Anacortes) and Whidbey Island. At tide change the current through the channel is awesome; there are also kayaking opportunities at Deception Pass, ranging from mild to OMG.

You'd then travel down (beautiful) Whidbey Island to a couple of very cute waterfront towns (Coupeville and Langley) or maybe stop at Fort Casey State Park, with its lighthouse, hiking trails and cool coastal defense gun batteries overlooking the seaways and the Olympic mountains. Finally take the ferry from the south end of Whidbey to Mukilteo (another cute lighthouse) and back to Seattle. You'll pass the Boeing Everett factory, home of the big jets and the biggest building in the world.

Map - https://goo.gl/maps/44oXL56waZeshVj58
Skykomish rafting - https://triadrivertours.com/skykomish-river-whitewater/
Skagit rafting - https://triadrivertours.com/skagit-river-rafting
Deception Pass kayaking - https://www.anacorteskayaktours.com/.../family-trips/

Thanks to Gardyloo's suggestions, I had a quick visit to Gig Harbor a few months ago. Highly recommend his suggestions!