Phoenix

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Half-Day Lower Salt River Rafting Tour

Phoenix, USA

From $170.00

Price varies by group size

Select Date and Travelers

up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)

4 hours
Mobile ticket
Offered in: English

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Overview

If you’ve ever wanted to raft a river, but don’t know how, get out of the Phoenix heat on a beginner-friendly float. Discover a scenic desert oasis less than an hour from the city. Your guide steers the boat and provides fascinating facts about the flora and fauna of the unique Sonoran Desert. Your whole family can swim, play, or just relax together on this small group adventure.

Beginner-friendly class 1 river rafting is safe and fun for the whole family
Great opportunities for Sonoran Desert wildlife and bird watching
Guided raft tour with paddles, life jackets and dry bags provided
Morning and afternoon departure times make it easy to fit this tour into your schedule

What's Included

Bottled water
Snacks
Professional guide
Raft & paddles
PFD (life jacket), dry bags
Roundtrip Transportation from Meeting Location (Canal/Hawes PNR: 3055 N Power Rd. Mesa, AZ 85215)
Fuel surcharge

Guide gratuities are optional but appreciated.

Meeting and Pickup

Meeting point

3055 N Power Rd, Mesa, AZ 85212, USA
* Look for signs for the Canal/Hawes Park & Ride. * Two entrances into lot: one at the light at N Power Rd and E Preston St and one 0.1 miles north on Power Rd. * Look for the REI van towards the north end of the lot. Please arrive early.

End point

This activity ends back at the meeting point.

What To Expect

Salt River (Pass By)

Additional Info

Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Not wheelchair accessible
Children must be accompanied by an adult
A minimum of 2 people per booking is required

A minimum weight of 35 lbs is required
Most travelers can participate
We require solo-travelers to pay the minimum of the 2-person price. If you are a solo traveler and would like to be added on to a pre-formed group for this tour, please mention this upon booking.
This tour/activity will have a maximum of 12 travelers

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.

For a full refund, you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time.
If you cancel less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time, the amount you paid will not be refunded.
Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted.

Cut-off times are based on the experience’s local time.
This experience requires good weather. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.

Traveler Photos

Featured review

Angin_C

Perfect trip for families with young kids (less teens) and first time rafters. Not for those looking for advanced level rafting experience. Our guide David was great. Patient, polite, happy guy. Only thing is be aware - if anyone in your family can’t make it due to unexpected illness they will not refund. So 4 out of 5 of us made it and too bad about the fifth. Think that was extreme. But it was great relaxing experience. Enjoyed it a lot.

Reviews

4.5

35 reviews

Total review count and overall rating based on Viator and Tripadvisor reviews

Reviews by Viator travelers.

We perform checks on reviews

Showing 1-10 of 35 reviews

Very informative and fun trip

Dan_R, Mar 2024

This was definitely a completely safe, stress-free tour that was safe for an entire family. We got to see a beautiful river and the surrounding landscape, getting great views of the mountains. Wonderful through and through

The guide was EXCELLENT!...

Jenny_M, Sep 2023

The guide was EXCELLENT! She was so patient and helpful to my elderly mom. She made it so easy for my mom to have an enjoyable time. I’m so thankful for her 🥰

River Trip

Brenda_S, Aug 2023

This was more expensive than it should have been. No where to change clothes or use a bathroom when we made it to back pick up area. Drinking Water was included, and the "snacks" were minimal. It was approximately 1.5 hours on the water which was slow moving. I expected more for the money I spent on 2 people. High point, we saw 2 wild horses on the shore, in 2 different areas. Not real exciting to swim with all the "snake grass".

Response from Host, Aug 2023

Hi there! We are sorry to hear of your unsatisfactory experience with us. We feel like our tours are accurately depicted on our website as well as the booking page. Our front office makes sure to explain expectations to guests that book directly with us. For any future bookings, please reach out with any questions. Thanks!

Our guide was fun and...

Darin_m, Oct 2022

Our guide was fun and enjoyable. Everyone had a wonderful time. It was very memorable time with my family.

Very fun

Jessika_E, Oct 2022

Very fun trip a lot less work than we had expected. I Rec asking about a private tour as it was very relaxing being just us. We got to see horses a lot of them. Guide was very nice and did a lot of the work. We took photos which were nice to have.

Our family rafting trip

Angin_C, Jul 2022

Patrick, our guide, was...

Lois_D, May 2022

Patrick, our guide, was great. The river is crystal clear and seeing the wild horses was very special. Great afternoon.

Gracie was our guide and...

Meredith_S, May 2022

Gracie was our guide and she did an incredible job! We got to see wild horses along the river while rafting! My mom and I had never been rafting before, so this was a great introduction for an activity to keep us cool in the desert heat. The views were amazing and the tour group was so fun. Seeing the horses alone made it worth going on this trip.

It was a very wonderful...

Patricia_W, Mar 2022

It was a very wonderful afternoon as we rafted down the Salt. We had hoped to see the wild horses and were not disappointed! The water was nice and cool on a warm day and Stacey,our guide, was very friendly and knowledgeable.

Our guide Miss(t)y is...

Kumar_G, Feb 2022

Our guide Miss(t)y is knowledgeable about the area and made sure we had fun! We got to see wild horses, play around in the river and just relax.

Rafting Tour

James_P, Oct 2021

This was a fun way to spend the afternoon - floating the Lower Salt River. It is very peaceful and scenic. We hit the jackpot when it came to spotting the wild horses - they were all over the river! We floated right by some of them - such a beautiful sight. Alexis, our guide, was very informative and entertaining so we had a ton of fun!

A peaceful quiet ride into nature

Harry_S, Aug 2021

We encountered several wild horses in the river...Very special sighting. This is a low keyed quiet tour into nature so expectations should be just that. We enjoyed the tour. It could have been improved in two ways, Our guide might have given more narrative about the flora and fauna along the river or the history of the area we were paddling through. The meeting place was recently changed and the instructions should be more explicit, There were two similar parking lots side by side and the van was just white with no identifying markings or signs.

Short overpriced tour in a packed raft ... but with great guides

Boris_N, Jul 2021

While I would rate our guides (Ben and Zach) five stars, as they were great, the overall tour left much to be desired (especially given the ridiculously high price). So Tour is 1 star and guides were 5 stars, which is how I ended up with 2 stars total. The Viator description says this is a 4-hour tour and I took that information into serious consideration when booking - it is also called a "half-day tour". However, we were done start to finish in under 2.5 hours and the actual float down the river was about 1.5 hours - so nowhere near the 4-hours or half-day (how is 2.5 hours half a day???). When booking this, I expected to be on the river for much longer than 1.5 hours and both the description and the title suggested that would be the case. Also, the picture shows 4 people on the raft with a guide and that is what I was hoping for. However, there was another family of 4 and our raft was packed - people floating by actually made fun of how packed our raft was. Considering the time on the water and the packed raft, and the ridiculous $450 price tag for a family of 4, I would not recommend this tour to others.

Easy and relaxing

Judy_N, Jun 2021

Who knew there’d be wild horses in the area! It’s always an experience to see wildlife in its natural habitat; one horse was wading across the river - neck deep! This was a low key rafting experience. Excellent guide who did most of the work; we paddled a bit but mostly floated the way down the river encountering a few “surging” areas. For my 15- and 17-year olds, this was not an adventure they’d do again. BUT seeing the wild horses made up the lack of “fun”. For us parents (in our 40s) this was a nice easy morning in the 100+ degree heat of June. Tour provided water and snacks. Guide was informative and fun to talk to.

rafting

Charlene_P, Jun 2021

Noel was knowledgeable and engaged. Kendall provided excellent customer care as well. this was our first experience in rafting and it felt safe and we were informed and supported.

Relaxing float

Cara_G, May 2021

Fun relaxing float. Family enjoyed it! Wish we would have stopped at a beach to swim. The rock we swam at was hard to get in and out of the water.

Nice day a bit pricey

Rebecca_V, May 2021

Guide was good and weather beautiful. I had hoped to see wild horses but wasn’t in the cards for us and my teens a bit bored but I enjoyed the serenity of it all.

Very Enjoyable

Nancy_S, Apr 2021

Seeing the wild horses and the peace and beauty of the Salt River float. Our guide, Ben, was excellent!

Floating Along

Robert_S, Sep 2019

During the season when the Salt River flows slowly, it was a pleasure to be with Eric and Matt for a leisurely morning on this picturesque river!

Very good

Venture16817063245, Mar 2019

The guides were excellent, knowledgeable and very personable. The ride itself was peaceful and a lot of fun. The only problem was getting in and out of the boat. The sides of the river were extremely muddy, especially at the spot we got out. Lots of slipping and sliding trying to get on shore. I do however do understand there had been rain and a water release though.