A Cheat River Outfitters

Had a great time today on the Cheat River. Very friendly owner and staff. Our guide was very pleasant. It was a beautiful day for a trip on the river. Only negative was the life jacket I had was humming from the last guy who wore it. If they could let the jackets dry before reusing them it would be helpful.

We did the afternoon float with Cheat River Outfitters on a day when the water was relatively high for early July — the water was at about 1600 cps, which has a lot of force in the fast rapids. There were two rafts for our group of 8, and my husband and I were on the bigger raft. When we approached the Calamity Rock rapid, the guide mistakenly aimed to go around on the left side, but instead we crashed into the huge boulder sideways, dumping four of the six of us on that raft (the guide and two others were left on it). I was swept under the raft (frightening), then down the rapid and into a swirling eddie that kept pulling me underwater despite that I was wearing a life jacket.
Meanwhile, my husband, the guide and the other person rushed past me downstream and went to help the others that had been swept down while I was alone in the fierce hole in front of the boulder with water crashing all around and pulling me in every direction. My husband said it was terrifying feeling completely helpless, far away and seeing me get pulled underwater multiple times. It took a good five minutes to finally kick out of the spot, which then pushed me downstream at a fast speed and the guide on the second raft in our group (who had pulled over to the side past the rapids) threw me a rope and pulled me to the shore. One of the guys in our group dislocated his shoulder and I had a big scrape/​bruise on my hip from hitting a rock in the rapid. When I got out of the water, I was completely out of breath from the exhaustion of trying to keep my head above the rushing water and to muster up the strength to kick myself out of the eddie.
I share this because I had no idea this class of whitewater rafting could be so incredibly frightening. This was dubbed as a «family trip,» with Class III rapids, but it would have been very scary if young children had been on our raft and dumped out. It is not for the faint of heart. This spot was extremely dangerous and I felt like the guide (Jim) could have been more professional. The company gives you a short safety schpiel at the beginning before you start, but they made it seem like extreme circumstances like this hardly ever happen. Yet after our accident, I asked the guides how long ago it had been since someone else had fallen out, and they said two weeks prior. To me, that seems pretty frequent! I do not recommend doing this trip if you have kids under 12 and the water is high. I am sufficiently traumatized and have no desire to ever raft again.

While we did have a wonderful family trip, I was incredibly bummed out afterwards when the pictures that they hype you up about during the ride out to the river are $ 10 per person in your group! I am used to the shocking $ 25-​$ 35 for photos after an event, seeing as there was 6 people in my party, I do not believe that the pictures on a disc that costs around a $ 1, max, is worth $ 60. That is blatant extortion! I get you are a «mom & pop» shop, but holy cow! My family really wanted the pictures, because at that price (over $ 50 per person to go on the trip, then the $ 60 for pictures) I will not be going back ever again, so we bought them. Took the pictures home, and I am thinking «Oh wow, 130 pictures??? Maybe $ 60 wasn’t bad!» Wrong– maybe 30 pictures are of myself and my family. The rest are of all the other groups who happened to go out that day. I do not care to see other families photos that they refused to pay for themselves, because it was so expensive. Trip was fun, ending was super disappointing.
Great guide (Byron, I believe), fun river, just ridiculous prices for «memories» afterwards.

We came with a group of 6 and had a great time. I struggled with paddling and kind of drifted off in my own little ducky, but the guides were extremely helpful and patient. I got the hang of it and still ended up having fun. The guides were friendly and fun. Also, you can rent wet suits for about 10 bucks so make sure to do that if it’s chilly out.

My friends and I came here during the 4^th of July weekend and had a blast. We reserved spots over the phone before we drove here and then paid individually at the front desk. Before boarding the bus to head over to the river, we received a safety briefing and signed waivers. Then, we put on life jackets and helmets before boarding the bus. Even the bus ride to and from was entertaining, our guides made a lot of funny, albeit corny jokes.
The river was actually very low the day we went, so it certainly wasn’t as many waves, whitewater, or drops as a typical Class 3 would have. I’ve done Class 3 – 5 before and this was a very tame Class 3. However, it was still a lot of fun. My boyfriend and I ended up being the only ones in a raft with a guide, and the rest of our friends did duckies. It worked out perfectly, as our raft + guide was the mama duck and the other duckies followed us. Our guide was awesome; he was super friendly and was all about safety.
Just rafting down Cheat River, soaking up nature, and seeing the sights of the environment around us was really enjoyable. The trip was about 6 – 7 hours long and came with lunch. We all stopped on a bank and other staff had brought lunch to us (sandwiches, apples, chips, etc).
It was $ 54.95 a person for the morning trip. I think it’s about $ 5 cheaper if you go in the afternoon. Cheat River Outfitters also offers rock climbing, caving, paintballing, and some other activities.

Great little Mom and Pop outfitter running some great adrenaline pumping whitewater! Wendy and Paul were great as was our guide Max and the other guides on the trip. We rafted the canyon at spring levels (high water). Decidedly not for the faint of heart! We had a great riverside sandwich lunch in view of a beautiful waterfall, some peaceful float time and a lot of great rapids. The Colosseum rapids were the highlight of our day! We’ll be back.