Liquid Descent

This place is awesome!!! Instructors are best of the best. We had so much fun. We ended up doing the advanced course. It a must when you come out and visit colorado…

Did the Colorado River ¹⁄₃ day in class 2 Rapids package This is in late August 2015. Originally going from Idaho Springs, but they said that location there was not enough water and another guest said he was at River near Idaho Springs and it was to low in water in certain spots
The trip was great and our guide, Kenneth did a great job. We had brought water shoes and that allowed us to get in and out of the boast without worrying about our street shoes. Plus Kenneth did a great job that we were close to shore getting in and out so the cold water was never very high over our feet. You could keep feet dry if you wanted.
We were extremely lucky as we saw 3 beaver, 1 Bald Eagle, a herd of mountain goats. You can’t beat that!
My only criticism was getting picked up and driving back. The puck up person was at the wrong spot and got to eat dust on drive home with the front windows open
Still would recommend them and maybe do class 5 Rapids in the future with them

We haven’t even rafted with liquid decent and I’ve already had a great experience with this company. They were honest and said the water was too low to deliver the experience they promise, so they made alternative suggestions and promptly refunded my money. I so appreciate their integrity and will definitely raft with them when the conditions are right.

Awesome experience all the guides are so fun specially Lacy was the best! I can’t wait to do this again !!

Had the best time with Peter as our guide, everyone was so kind and helpful, took my two daughters and my daughters friend, best river rafting ride I’ve been on loved the views, and Peter made it a wonderful trip, will definitely do this trip again. I will be bringing all visitors up to Colorado to this raft outfit.

We had so much fun! Ben was our guide on the beginner rapids and did such a great job. We had 4 kids with us and they had a blast. It was a beautiful, fun and memorable afternoon.

While visiting Colorado with a team of 50 high school youth for a mission trip, we booked a beginner’s level rafting excursion with Liquid Descent. The staff did a phenomenal job at handling our large group in a smooth and relatively quick manner!
My raft’s guide, Ryan, was knowledgable and a total sweetheart. He did a great job with preparing us for surprises and bumps during our ride, and he was skilled at keeping those of us who were beginners calm. I could have easily spent the day whitewater rafting! I cannot wait to try it again!

Love this company! I have rafted with a few around colorado and these guys are my favorite. Not only is it close to Denver (bout an hour) but they are fun! If you are looking for a fun attractive group of raft guides, this is a good pick! Also our raft guide Max was awesome :)

Great time today on the river. We arrived to a friendly and professional staff.
They got us quickly geared up and ready to raft. After a safety meeting we were off.
We had 6 in our boats. 2 were kids aged 8 and 11. We opted for the beginner route and it was very appropriately named. It was nice and tame but still had a few bumps and white water. Perfect for first timers. I would recommend this outfitter. They were all very kind. I would opt for the wet suit booties that they rent. Keeps your tootsies nice and warm in the cold water. Liz Cornell, La Grange, IL — July 28, 2015

This was my second or third time rafting with LD, and once again I had an awesome adventure. In short, the price, location, and ease of service that this company offers is exceptional. I even had to get a refund for two people who didn’t come, and Liquid Descent promptly refunded me in full, no problem.
We went rafting for the 4^th of July. Had no problem making a reservation for 10. We brought go pros which mounted nicely to some of the helmets. Our instructor was young and fun. The rafting instructors interacted with everyone in our boat and it was team effort. While we did the intermediate Rapids, LD offers beginners and advanced routes. We survived intermediate, and the first timers among us were chomping at the bit to try advanced next time!
I recommend intermediate – I did beginners once and it was like a boat ride down the river; no real action, no splashes or fun bumps, no maneuverability, and the Rapids were not very memorable.
My only complaint: The convenience of the location takes away from the scenery of the rafting route (this isn’t the Arkansas afterall) but there are some charming points (waterfall mill, rocky straights, overhanging tree sections), but it doesn’t matter as you’ll be focused on the Rapids anyway so the scenery is not a priority.

While in Colorado on a family trip we all decided to go whitewater rafting. We looked into 4 different companies and thought Liquid Descent looked the best (best price, reviews and options). We had 8 people do the intermediate trip on Clear Creek. Most of our party hadn’t done any whitewater rafting before and the intermediate trip was great and perfect for us! We were split into 2 groups of 4 (I believe you can have 6 – 7 plus an instructor per raft).
We had a 2:00 pm raft time and when we got there, there was a lot of waiting around until we got all geared up (so don’t be in a rush). Once we got started we were able to get wetsuits (not mandatory but recommended– I was debating on getting one and was glad I did), a splash jacket and a helmet. Our group all had Go Pros we brought and some of the helmets even have mounts already attached to them. Once you are all set you take a 4 minute bus trip to the river and go through a short safety talk and paddle/​river introductions.
The intermediate trip started with a 2 mile «warm-​up» to get you use to it and then you get to the good stuff. All of the boats travel down together and we stopped a few times so everyone could catch up to the group. Our instructor was Tennessee Lee and he was awesome. He had stories about his rafting experiences and was a great instructor.
We ended up getting back to the Liquid Descent building around 5:00 pm so be sure to allow your self enough time. At the end of the trip you are able to buy a cd of your trip with pictures ($ 35 each). This was an awesome experience! We had a great time and will definitely be back to try out the advanced rafting trip!

We recently went to Colorado for my daughters fast pitch softball tournament. A few parents and their kids decided to go white water river rafting and picked Liquid Decent.
It was amazing!
I highly recommend the intermediate level with class 2 – 4 Rapids. It was our first time ever going and the staff was nice and very helpful. They made us aware of everything we could encounter for our trip down the rapids.
We loved it so much we decided to go back within the same week and bring the rest of the team with us!
Very affordable for big groups and in some cases will include a picture CD from your trip. Please remember to bring a lil extra money to tip your guide after everything is done.
Well worth it!

Omg. I had the BEST time. This was my friends and I first time rafting and we were a little nervous to say the least. Being city folk from NJ and CT on a fast paced cross country road trip, we just didn’t know what to expect. We booked last min after researching and researching rafting places close to Denver that weren’t expensive. After arriving we suited up in all the gear that was INCLUDED in the very reasonable price and were instructed on the Dos and Donts. The very cute, very funny instructor was very knowledgeable, although most of the info went in one ear and out the other as I began to panic. I forgot the name of the guide that was with us during rafting but it was not b/​c he wasn’t memorable. Ladies ladies ladies. this cowboy hat wearing mf’er was cuteeeeee lol. He was also super nice and made me feel not so stupid about my crappy paddling skills. Overall I can’t think of anything negative to say about this place except not getting the Cowboys number lol. I created an account on here just to give a positive review. Also, thanks Liquid Descent for the lingo «star-​fishing». Me and my friend have been using it on our road trip ever since we left there. My friend got wasted in Vegas and kept saying she was going to starfish in Cesar’s lobby.

Absolutely one of the best experiences for my family. White water rafting have been on our family of four bucket list. We are from South Texas so Rivers like this don’t exist where we live. I will admit that we were intimidated when we first arrived. There were a lot of people that appeared to have done this before. When they gather us around and a show of hands for first timers everyone raised their hand. Now am comfortable. When we introduced ourselves to the staff at the desk the young ladies were very friendly and helpful.
Training time and safety information was delivered very clearly. Peter was our guide. He seemed very well knowledge and very experienced. He was very informative about our rafting experience as we approached them. Oh it was great information knowing that you’re coming up on class IV Rapids. Since it’s my families first time we decide to take their intermediate. I highly recommend it. My 13-​year-​old daughter and my 15-​year-​old son enjoyed every minute of it. We will definitely do it again.
Tip: take a go pro it’s very nice to have the full experience on video. Do not use the headband strap or helmet strap. Some helmets will still have the sticky mount if not put one on it and leave it for someone else to use.

Okay so I’ll be honest, I’m one of those «city-​folk» people the previous reviewer mentions. I don’t know much about rafting and this was my first experience but I thoroughly enjoyed it (apart from the wet suit which should be renamed sweat-​suit). We were a group of seven people and we took the intermediate rafting even though we were all basically NOOBS. But I’m glad we did because it was a little scary and unexpected but so much fun. It was definitely a thrill.
Our guide Shawn made our experience quite enjoyable and gave us a lot of compliments (I have a suspicion that he was doing that just to make us feel good). There were a lot of jokes and light banter but he was also good with giving instructions and letting us know about difficult stretches and how to get out of it without flipping.
If you’re «city-​folk» and haven’t done something like this before, it will probably be a pleasant (and thrilling) experience for you. However, be warned! The water is COLD. When they say wet-​suits are highly recommended, they mean it. It will feel really icky and gross, like stepping into someone else’s sweaty skin but it’s still better than what one of my friends went through. He chose not to wear the wet suit and was shivering the whole time. The booties are $ 3 rental and I would recommend it too (along with the blue jackets). I didn’t wear the booties (scared of foot fungus) but my feet went numb not long after getting into the raft. And You want to be able to feel your feet because you’ll be using them to make sure you don’t fall off.
The pictures are expensive :(and the bathrooms aren’t sufficient (there’s only two and a lot of people trying to use it).
But all in all a pretty good experience and I can’t wait to go rafting again!

I’ve rafted in Africa, South America and now Colorado. I’ve gotta say that this outfit really has it together. Clear Creek was high and fast on the intermediate course yesterday. It was a great Level 4 experience. Our guide, John McSween was very professional and made the experience safe and fun. My friends are going back again next week. I only wish I could join them.

My wife and I took the advanced half day tour — nothing insane but lots of fun. It was the highlight of our trip! Everyone from John, our guide, to the people who checked us in to our driver/​photographer were awesome! Great attitudes who made sure we had a great time. You have many rafting companies to chose in Idaho Springs, I highly recommend Liquid Descent.
Yeah, Clear Creek river was awesome too! I hate you Beaver1 rapids!

Even though we signed up for a full day advanced run on Clear Creek, we ended up doing an half day intermediate run because of the low water flow. My rating came mostly from the experience not meeting the expectation.
Even though Alan called to recommend us doing a half day because of the low water flow, he never mentioned that well, the river isn’t as intense as an advanced run would be. I wish he’d said something along the line of «This would be more like an intermediate run.» — then we’d have adjusted our expectation accordingly.
So having rafted many times before, we came expecting some adrenaline rush only to be disappointed by the rapids. My friend even joked that what we did was more «white water DRIFTING».
We were on the water for 6 miles. So that was like what? 20 – 30 minutes on the river? And only the last 3 miles had class IV rapids. We spent more time driving there and back.
Other minor grievances/​recommendations:
— If booties were not optional, just include it in the rental. $ 3 for rental just seems petty.
— $ 35 for a CD? In this social media age, I’d think that you’d want people to have photos on their FB/​Instagram and what not and get some publicity. And who has a CD drive anymore nowadays? Lower the price and sell them in a thumbdrive and you’d probably get more volume.
— Guides asking for tips in the end. Sigh. So cheesy. It just left a sour note at the end of the day.
Having said that, the experience was smooth. Our guide was fine and seemed to know what he was doing. I loved watching the safety kayaker ahead of us.
Maybe I’ll try the advanced full day later in the season after all of the snow has melted. Or I’ll give whitewater kayaking a try because among all of us on the raft, that guy looked like he had the most fun.

My friend and I are doing a roadtrip from CA to OH and CO was one of our stops. Someone recommended going whitewater rafting and this company… Couldn’t have picked a better place to go rafting for the first time in a few years!
All the guides were so helpful, friendly, and hilarious. If you look online, sometimes you can find a coupon for 20% off a half day of rafting, but I would be glad to pay full price (and will next time I come back).
You can rent booties from them, but they provide wetsuits and rain-​like jackets for free! They recommend not wearing cotton because you’ll get pretty cold. I just wore running shoes, running shorts, a dri-​fit Nike shirt, and borrowed one of their rain jackets.
We did the intermediate half day drip on Clear Creek and it was a blast! Hands down one of the best things I’ve ever done. You start out the trip with two Class IV, followed by some II and III’s for a mile or so. Then you have about three miles of back-​to-​back Class IV’s! We almost tipped our raft, and other rafts in our party had a couple of swimmers/​people fall out. But they’re so good about safety and preparing you for things that could happen.
During one of our Class III’s, our guide asked if we wanted to spice things up a little bit. So we all stood up in our raft and paddled. No one fell! It was great. Oh also, if you happen to be sitting on the left side of your raft, be prepared for the Class IV called Guide Ejector! Your side will go flying, but it’s awesome.
In case you were wondering, they do have someone taking pictures of each guide’s raft. I bought a CD for $ 35 with some pretty sweet pictures… new Facebook profile picture, of course! ;)
They also do advanced trips at Gore Canyon and it looks EPIC. I would come back to Colorado just to do it and raft with Liquid Descent.
But remember to not tip your raft and always tip your guide!

My 70 year old father wanted to check off whitewater rafting on his bucket list so we said we would help him out. We searched Colorado for a company with excellent reviews and found Liquid Descent.
After we arrived they gave us wetsuits, vests, helmets and splash jackets. You want the wetsuits the water is COLD!!! After getting to the drop in spot they gave us a short safety briefing and some rafting instructions and off we went.
You get wet, really wet… but thats all part of the fun. Our guide was awesome and we have a fantastic time. I highly recommend that you raft in the spring when the water is a little higher and faster.