The Smoky Mountains, located in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, offer some of the best white water rafting in the eastern United States. The mountain rivers carve through ancient rock, creating rapids that range from fun roller coasters to heart-pounding thrill rides. If you’re looking for an adventurous day surrounded by stunning mountain scenery, a white water rafting trip should be on your bucket list!
My family’s white water rafting adventure in the Smoky Mountains proved to be the most fun we’ve had together in years! As we plunged through the raging rapids, screaming and laughing while cold mountain water drenched us to the bone, we were full of excitement. Every twist and turn brought a new thrill – whether it was my son’s laughter as we hit a wave and got thoroughly doused, or my husband grinning from ear to ear as we bounced through the choppy currents, savoring every second of adventure. Though we left the river soaked, we have created new bonds and memories to last a lifetime. It was the perfect family vacation. We were so sad that our girls could not join us on this trip. We are making plans to go again when everyone can go.
Smoky Mountain Outdoors Rafting
We booked our rafting adventure with Smoky Mountain Outdoors White Water Rafting and they provided top-notch service from start to finish. They have been providing rafting experiences in the Smokies for over 30 years (since 1993) down the Pigeon River. We took their upper river tour which covers 6.5 miles of exciting Class 3 and 4 rapids. It was around 2 hours long and had lots of fun rapids to navigate. We laughed the entire trip. It was so much fun!
The guides transported us upriver by bus and gave a thorough safety briefing before we shoved off in the river. Our guide, Ace, was incredible. She knew so much about white water rafting. As we navigated thrilling rapids her instructions kept us paddling in sync. We were impressed by her expertise reading the currents and avoiding the biggest obstacles. Ace made sure to point out cool sights along the way and tell us all about each rapid before we went through them. After an exhilarating trip, we finished back at the starting point, where we climbed out of the river and headed to the gift shop to check out the pictures they took of us during our trip. Of course, we bought them all! We couldn’t have asked for a better rafting experience in the Smokies!
We booked a white water rafting and zip lining combo package. Both were amazing. I will share our zip lining adventure in another post.
