Rogue River Itinerary
Pre-Trip
Plan to arrive in the Galice or Grants Pass area the evening before your trip. You can stay at the Galice Resort, Morrison's Lodge, or a Grants Pass area motel. Get a good rest for an early start and big days ahead!
Day 1
You'll meet your head guide and other guests at the Galice Resort at 9 AM. Be sure to have a hearty breakfast, which you can get at the Resort if you arrive early. Come dressed in your river clothes and ready for action. Your head guide will distribute dry bags packed with sleeping bags and pads and you'll transfer your personal belongings into the bags before loading them onto the trailer. Everyone will then load up in passenger vans for the short (15 min.) drive to the put-in.
You'll begin your trip at Almeda Bar, a large rock bar downstream from Galice. Your head guide will give a detailed safety talk, and then you'll put on a life jacket, load your dry bags on the rafts and head out!
You'll stop for lunch after a couple of hours and then enter the Wild and Scenic section of the river. Grave Creek Rapids thrill the rafters and challenge the kayakers. Next, you reach Rainey Falls, which most guests will hike around and can watch for leaping salmon.
After Rainey Falls it is smooth floating to camp. You'll arrive early enough to put up tents, and then you can take a short hike, a brief swim, relax, or delve into vacation reading before dark. The guides will prepare appetizers, followed by dinner and dessert before everyone heads to bed.
Day 2
You'll awake in the coziness of your tent and peak out to the quiet forest and flowing river. Coffee and tea will be ready by 7 AM with light breakfast options like yogurt, fruit and cereal. A hot breakfast will be ready around 8 AM with pancakes and bacon, French toast and sausage or scrambled eggs with English muffins.
After breakfast, you'll get dressed, take down your tent and load up your dry bag for the guides to tie down to the rafts. We try to get on the water by 10 AM. During the day you may stop for some interesting side hikes or points of interest along the river.
You'll stop for lunch around midday for about an hour and then paddle on to your next campsite, again arriving with plenty of daylight for camp games, quick hikes, fishing or relaxing before dinner.
- D. Holt, Tuscon, AZ
Day 3
Okay, now you're in the swing of things: coffee, breakfast, pack-up, load-up, on the river! This is a big whitewater day with Mule Creek Canyon and the infamous Blossom Bar. You will probably visit the Rogue River Ranch complete with old pioneer photographs, farm tools and history of the Rogue River and stop for a quick lunch.
Afterwards, you'll encounter the best whitewater of the trip. At Mule Creek Canyon the river plunges through a narrow canyon with sheer rock walls. When the whitewater lets up, you have a chance to enjoy the spectacular beauty.
After a break comes Blossom Bar, an extremely tricky maze of rocks, and the most challenging rapid on the Rogue. The guides will stop to scout the rapid and there may be a line of boats to get through. Everyone will either ride on a big raft through Blossom or some guests may walk around it.
Then it is smooth floating through more beautiful scenery until camp. This will be your last night with all of your new friends, so we like to have a bit of a fiesta complete with fajitas and river-ritas!
Day 4
Your last day begins like the others, but perhaps a little earlier. There's still plenty of paddling and the beautiful Flora Dell waterfall. After lunch, you'll continue down to the take-out at Foster Bar, usually arriving by 1 or 2 PM.
Take-out is a shocking signal that the trip is really over as you get your first glimpse of civilization, which inevitably elicits sounds of dismay from the group. The disappointment is soon lost in the bustle of unloading the rafts, changing clothes, loading the vans, and saying goodbye to all but your head guide. You'll load back up in passenger vans for the ride back to Galice. It is a beautiful but curvy ride that takes a couple of hours.
Back at Galice (3-5 PM), you'll bid your fellow guests adieu, unpack your dry bags and give them to your head guide. Most guests choose to spend another night in Galice, although you could head to Ashland, Crater Lake, Portland or the Oregon coast, if you're continuing on your vacation.
