Tributary Whitewater Tours

Absolutely love this place! Our guide started out as a customer and ended up working there and she was phenomenal. We did a low level lower middle fork with my wife and in-laws. By the end we the kids up front crash through the waves! Even the driver was friendly and chill, he was filling in for the regular driver and killed it. We left on time and got back to the pub with time for some cold ones, my wife and I want to do a whole day next summer!

I do have good things to say about Tributary Whitewater Tours, but a negative I wanted to highlight is that at the end of our rafting ride where we board buses back to the main Tributary site, there was was a one-person men's bathroom and the only thing in it was a toilet. There was nowhere to wash one's hands with soap and water and then to dry them.This is disgusting and a health hazard. Hundreds of people get dropped at the location we did before boarding buses taking them back to the main site, and it is a problem that so many can't wash their hands properly.We don't live in a third-world country. The expectation is that after paying a fair amount of money for the rafting, we can use a hygienic bathroom.

We had an awesome time on our white water rafting trip this summer. The cabins, riverside lunches, steak dinners, making new friends, and two amazing days of rafting the South Fork American river. Getting to experience the Tunnel Chute was epic!! AJ was a great guide with tons of river history to share over the two days on the water. We are Looking forward to trying another Tributary rafting trip.

Tributary Waters Rafting ReviewWe recently booked an adventure with Tributary Waters, which included one night of "glam camp" followed by a full day navigating Class 3 rapids. While the rafting itself was enjoyable, the overall experience left much to be desired.Firstly, our camping experience was marred by neighbors who partied until 3 AM. Disturbingly, we heard them use racial slurs, which was particularly unsettling for us as an Indian family with teenagers. We chose not to confront them to avoid conflict, plus it was clear the campers had been drinking, but it was a deeply uncomfortable situation.The amenities at the camp were sparse. Small items such as bottled water were hard to come by (only water was in a cooler or faucet ) and there was no coffee or other basic provisions typically offered at camping sites (for cost), despite the price we paid.The rafting day started poorly as we didn't depart until 9:00 AM, over an hour late, because some participants were running behind schedule. Our guide AJ, claimed to have three years of experience, lacked the personality and professionalism one would expect. He made off-color jokes and was generally not engaging. Lunch was another disappointment. By the time we got to the station to eat lunch, we had already experienced significant discomfort from the heat and lack of proper organization. Additionally, we had to wait almost 45 mins for preparation after the four hours of rafting. Given the extreme heat (115 degrees), this added to our discomfort.We also noticed that other groups with different guides seemed to have a much more engaging and fun experience. We wish we had the same, as it might have significantly improved our overall impression. We did have a somewhat sleepless night, but having an engaging guide might have really helped. Other rafting companies we've experienced usually provide small snacks and bottled water throughout the trips and have lunch ready by the time the rafters are done with half-day or full-day trips. This level of service was notably absent.While the rafting itself was enjoyable, the lack of consideration for campers' needs, poor management, and the unprofessionalism of our guide were significant drawbacks. But we did tip our guide because he did guide us through the harder rapids. It was our decision to go on such a hot weekend, but the experience could have been improved with better organization and provisions. We hope Tributary Waters can address these issues to improve the experience for future guests.

Had a great time rafting down the south Fork American River Lower Gorge Run. The kids ages 11 and 14 loved the rapids and swimming in the river. Our expert guide, Abigail took good care of us and led us down the river safely. I highly recommend this experience. Will definitely be back again!

Went on level 3 and was sooo much fun through Satan Cesspool and Hospital Bar... ironically we had a med student with us! We had Phil, prob the only Irish tour guide. He was so fun to talk with during the raft and very experienced & knowledgeable. We got to do 360s, rock bouncing, but no flips (thankfully) Next time we'll try level 4!

Looooooong overdue review! I've been out with Tributary multiple times. Easy half day, more technical full day and most recently a four day trip through Hells Canyon on the Snake River. I think it's safe for me to say that Tributary Whitewater is the bees knees! Starting with Jessica in reservations, to Jeremiah the owner who I've had the pleasure of chatting with a few times, right down to the amazing guides Chris, Megan, Joe, Matt, Noah, Nate, & Gregor just to name a few, these guys are truly top notch. The day trips are fun and exciting and I've always felt safe and supported but this multi day trip was next level luxury. Relaxing and fun days on the water, fresh lunch prepped riverside each day, guided hikes to ancient petroglyphs and old homesteads, showing up to camp already set up, tents pitched, and a gourmet meal being put together by chef Megan. What more could you ask for? Lemme tell you. When we had a sudden shift in temperature, guide and boss man Chris pulled out quite literally every piece of clothing he had with him to keep us warm. Sweet Joesph ushered us up some slippery volcanic rock for some fun rock jumping and when I was too much of a weenie to jump alone he held my hand and jumped with me. Matt spent an entire night going over pointers for all the things I still want to learn and different online resources he used when he was in training and even a volunteer program he knew of where I could get some more river hours in. And when I got some gnar blisties, Chef Megan didn't just grab the regular first aid kit, she went and grabbed a special honey salve that her brother gave her from her own personal gear. Special little touches that show that they didn't just care about getting us from Point A to Point B in one piece, but making sure we enjoyed the ride along the way. These guys are also great land stewards and all major LNT principals were followed perfectly, which is not as common as you'd think in river guiding. In chatting with Chris about training guidelines, it's clear they cultivate a company culture of not just enjoying the land and rivers they work on, but respecting and caring for them, too, which is super cool. 10/10 have and would recommend to a friend and if Tributary is on a river that I want to run there is no reason I would go with anyone else.

We went on the overnight wilderness adventure on the South American river. Our guide was Erin along with Sona, Joe and Nick. Our 8 pack included 4 adults and 4 kids aged 7-10. We had an absolute blast and wished it was longer than 2 days. Erin was born to be a river guide and she made the trip fantastic. The whole crew were super friendly and worked super hard while we enjoyed the experience. I told our kids that we will never go to Disneyland again and do an annual river trip. Price point for the adventure was reasonable and we learned how to navigate the river and the kids rated it a 10 out of 10. We can't wait to experience the next trip at a different location.

We went for level 3 and unfortunately we didn't have a great experience. It could have been an one off day, my basis for comparison is doing the exact same path previous year with a different tour operator. We were a party of 5. The biggest issue was our guide seemed to lose control of the raft a bunch of times through the trip. I understand it can happen during the moderate rapids, but we had an accident on very calm waters (basically on the section that was smooth with slow flowing water). The boat banged against a rock in pretty calm waters causing it to lean on one side, throwing me and another person from my party sitting on the side of impact to fall over into water. I have a quad muscle tear from the fall. Other issue was how they clubbed parties on the boat. We (party of 5) were clubbed with another party of 3 on the same boat and the guide. Our previous experience was we got entire boat to ourselves for a party of 5, so this did seem crowded. That is fine, as anyway the boat is not supposed to be comfortable and meant to carry 8. However, the party of 3 took both the front seats. The front seats are the most exciting, most comfortable and where you encounter most of the fun water splashes. Given that we had 5 people party, we should have been given at least one of the front seats. We had both the last row seats to our party and to be honest they are the most uncomfortable if you are well build and tall since the paddle from the guide who sits on the back would keep tapping you a bunch of times (not their fault) and also they have some fitting for the guide to sit causing not enough space on the last row to sit. My complaint is not with comfort as you can't change the boat structure, but with the party of 3 taking all best seats on the boat.Combining these things (accident, overcrowding and not having any front row) definitely resulted in a poorer experience than what we had previous year.

If you are looking for an adventure and willing to take on a new challenge with an element of risk, Tributary Tours might be for you!The company provided an excellent experience, white water rafting down parts of the American River.What made Tributary really stand out are the people who worked there.Matt is possibly the best whitewater rafting tour guide ever! Ask for Matt! Highly experienced, informative, and yet keeping everything very casual and fun!! It made a world of a difference having Matt as our guide. He went out of his way to make it fun each step of the way. I felt safe with him guiding us. And his cooking was equally epic!Megan was another employee who I cannot praise enough! Truly caring and helpful! Very thorough safety instructions and always checking in to make sure our needs were being met. Also, going the extra mile to help us out with our check in process. Tributary is really lucky to have her!I would definitely ask for Matt or Megan if you need a guide!The facilities were adequate. The on-site permanent tents were simple yet in decent shape. The ping pong table allowed for some fun while waiting for meals. Three (of the five) showers were always functional with plenty of hot water. The bathrooms were adequate and I noticed they must have been cleaned at least once during our stay.The meals were better than expected, especially the dinner! Appreciated the vegetarian options for those who needed them.Areas for consideration:- informational email sent before arrival was helpful but I think really encouraging water sandals would have been beneficial. The sandals at the shop on site did not cinch down well.- lots of poison oak, including near the tents. Fortunately cleared from the most critical locations.- some kind of water fountain (maybe with an extra filter) would be nice, instead of filling our water bottles from a hose which has intense pressure.Thank you Tributary / Rafting California !