Horseshoe Canyon

The tour includes 1.5 – 2 hours on the river (including a 20 minute float to finish up), a professional river guide with each boat, an optional river swim, and free professional photos. All safety equipment including clean and dry wetsuits, wetsuit booties, fleece, spray jacket, life jacket and a helmet is provided. The tour winds through scenic views of the front range of the Rocky Mountain Ranges and occasionally we see wildlife such as osprey, bald eagles, deer and bears.

The Nakoda Lakeside Lodge has clean port-a-potties, male and female change tents and ample free parking.

The meeting point is at the Nakoda Lakeside Lodge, located on Highway 1A approximately 25 minutes from Canmore and 45 minutes from Banff and Calgary. Detailed driving directions are included in your booking confirmation. There is ample free parking at the riverbase and you will brought back to your vehicle at the end of the tour.

If you don’t have your own vehicle transportation is available for an additional fee on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from the public bus parking behind the Mount Royal Hotel in Banff (7:35am) and the Coast Canmore Hotel and Conference Centre in Canmore (8am). Please select your preferred pickup location during the booking process. Please note that transport is not available in 2021.

Please wear your swimsuit under your clothes and bring warm clothes, a face mask, hand sanitizer and a towel in a bag for after the tour. We also suggest bringing a toque or hat for colder days, to wear under the helmet. Your belongings can be stored in the bus or your own car while you are on the river.

You can wear sunglasses/glasses as long as these are secured with a strap or piece of string, and contact lenses are usually okay if you are comfortable swimming with them and tell your guide. Sunscreen is great on a hot day for any areas not covered by the wetsuit, but avoid putting it above or near your eyes. You can bring your own waterproof camera or GoPro which can be secured with your own chest harness or on a helmet with a GoPro mount, but we are not responsible for loss or damage of your equipment.

Anything else! It isn’t recommended to bring your camera and rafters aren’t permitted to wear their own wetsuit or to wear anything that could cause a hazard while on the tour.

When you are making your reservation please let the agent know and they will check with the rafting team. On the day please bring any medication you may need and inform your guide of any medical conditions.

No rafting experience is necessary, and we provide a Professional River Guide with each boat who will explain and demonstrate paddle, safety and emergency techniques. This includes dryland safety instructions and practicing paddling on the river before the waves.

Guests should be physically fit and have a reasonable swimming ability. If you have never rafted before or do not know how to swim, we recommend the Kananaskis Whitewater Rafting Tour, as the rapids and river are not as strong as the other tours.

You will go through class 3 & 4 rapids during your tour, which is ideal for adventure lovers. This is a moderate trip, exciting but not difficult. Wondering what the rapids classifications mean? Check out our Whitewater Rafting Rapids Classification Guide.

The tour is run by Chinook Rafting who have been operating whitewater rafting tours as a licensed company in the province of Alberta since 1983 and all of the rafting guides are trained in Swiftwater Rescue and First Aid & CPR. What this means for you is that they are confident that they can manage, not eliminate, the risks today to offer you an exciting and fun day on the river, creating as safe a framework as they can, given what we are doing. However, it is important to remember that we are not on a track, this isn’t Disneyland!  The fact that we’re not on a track adds excitement to what we’re doing, but it also adds inherent risks.

There is a 24 hour cancellation policy, which allows you to change/cancel or refund your booking up to 24 hours outside your booked tour (up to 7 days for group bookings).

Tips are not expected, but are certainly appreciated. If you think your guide did a wonderful job and would like to indicate that with a tip, it will be graciously accepted.