high country expeditions

My family (with 2 kids 12 & 14) completed the 1/2 day McKenzie River rafting trip while staying at the beautiful Belknap Springs Resort. They have an office right next to the main entrance to the lodge. Couldn't be any easier or convenient. What a fantastic trip! Our guide was Dennis. He was just wonderful. You could tell he truly loved the river and he even has a home along the river farther south. After our trip ended, we got to witness Dennis and other High Country employees rescue an inexperienced kayaker that got trapped on the rocks. Wow... What more can I say?!

They have their act together for a very fun ride down the cleanest river in America, The McKenzie. With towering pines and hills to each side, and overhanging branches, and old bridges, and funny quips, your bumpy ride down white-water will fly by.

We did the afternoon (1:45pm) whitewater rafting on the McKenzie River. 2 adults and 2 children ages 9 and 11. We all had so much fun and we're definitely going to do it again. When I first called to enquire about the rafting trip the staff was extremely helpful in answering all my questions. It was about 78 degrees (perfect weather and surprisingly cooler than expected for early August). They provided wetsuits for the kids, jackets, life jackets, and booties (we brought our own water shoes). There were 3 rafts in our group - our raft was just the 4 of us and our guide. Our guide was great kept the adults and even the kids engaged. Learned alot about the area during the trip too. Beautiful scenery! I would highly recommend this!

We recently completed a rafting trip on the North Umpquate with HCE. It was a perfect river to raft for the experience level of our family. The office staff did a great job of matching a river experience to our ages and skill level. The scenery was terrific and representative of Central Oregon. The lead guide was great and put our inexperienced rafting family at ease. Thanks HCE!

Stuart and Jeff lead us down section 1 and 2 of the N. Umpqua on Saturday and it was fantastic. They knew the river, all the best lines, and fixed up a great lunch as well. We had a blast. Thanks Guys......

Such a great day out on the river. My boys (Ages 6-16) and I had never been white water rafting and we were so glad we went. The experience was perfect from start to finish. Our guide was Cha-chi and he was great with the kids and gave so much information about the wildlife we were seeing and the history of the land throughout our trip. This was an experience we will never forget.

I'm sure all the tour guides are awesome, but somehow I think our Chachi was the best. Charming, funny, confident.... Just my husband and myself were on the boat. I love to kayak, but somehow sitting on the edge of the front of the boat was a bit scary. He put me completely at ease and we had some funny conversations over that. I signed up for 1/2 day, but at the end of the trip, regretted not opting for the whole day. Chachi is also a chef (complete Renaissance Guy) and I'm sure what we would have had for lunch would have been an amazing veggie fare.The river was running great (2 sometimes a 3 thrown in) and fun. We did do some paddling, but I'm not sure we really helped! He lives in the area and knew everything there was to know about the river, its inhabitants, neighbors, weather.... You name it... I wish I could remember his partner in the other boat with all the exchange students, but I was wow'd by his humor and people skills, so if you can't get 'our' Chachi, I'm 100% confident you'll have a blast.

For nearly 20 miles, about a 3 hour rafting trip on class 3 water, you'll love this rafting. Josh at High Country Expeditions was so good a guide last year (2011) that we planned our whole second vacation spot to McKenzie River area for a week because of him, renting a cabin locally. We have been out twice in the last few days, with another third trip down the river with Josh tomorrow! This is a must, and is very appropriate for young children and the elderly. If you don't want to row, just say so. If you want your "smarter than life" teenagers to have a great time, put them up front to get a little wet occasionally (and a big "there you go kid!"). Take your digital camera/phone and sit in the back and request not to row most of the trip and do like I did, take over 30 minutes of rafting. You won't get very wet back there and Josh or the guide will give you a heads-up if it gets a little rough. There is nothing scary about this river, other than some crazy jokes that get going after a few miles on the river as you take in the scenary. Be prepared to wear very appropriate bathing shorts and flipflops when you arrive, as you will be putting on a wet suit and it is better you have swimming trunks and flips for ease of the suit. Beautiful!