River Rat Rentals

03/19/2024

03/19/2024

🚨 Vendor Call 🚨
Calling all makers, creators, artists, and vendors!
If you are a vendor looking to sell your wares at the Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival happening this summer on July 26th & 27th, now is the time to get signed up! We still have spots available for retail vendors (food truck spaces are full), and we'd love to have you join us!
From now until the end of April, vendors can get early bird pricing on vendor spaces. After that, the fee goes up, so email [email protected] now!

Royal Gorge Chamber Alliance

07/21/2023

Wrapping up the prep work for whitewater. It's been a long day, but fun coming up with designs and colors 🙃

07/21/2023

It's happening!!!!!
Today is day one of The Royal Gorge Whitewater Festival and here's the map of all the fun that begins at 3PM.
Schedule for FRIDAY July 21, 2023
(this afternoon & evening)

3:00 PM
Recorded Music
Location: River Stage

4:00 PM
Benjamin Dakota Rogers
Location: River Stage

4:00 PM
River/Play Wave Demos - SUPs, etc.
Location: Play wave

5:00 PM
SUP Parade
Location: Pink House

5:15 PM
All Hands on Deck

6:00 PM
Community Raft Race Auction
Location: Main Stage

6:00PM
Six Bucks & A Flight
Location: River Stage

6:30 PM
Community Raft Race Time Trial
Location: Pink House

6:00 PM
Gorge Race Kayaks
Location: Pura Vida

6:10 PM
Gorge Race Rafts
Location: Pura Vida

7:30PM
Leadville Cherokee
Location: Main Stage

9:00 PM
The Martini Shot
Location: Main Stage
Make plans to get over here, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun without you!

07/17/2023

River Rats ♾️🤙🏻

As we roll into the week and are looking forward to the festival starting THIS FRIDAY, we're also taking a look at the past. Check out this article from May 1988 published by Skyline flashes about "River Rat" culture in Cañon City!
A little history from the Royal Gorge Regional Museum & History Center:

"It wasn’t until the 1840’s that the first rubber raft is thought to have been invented. Purchased from Horace Day, John Charles Fremont used a rubber raft in his 1842 Platte River survey.Rafting truly took off during the 1960’s. Rafts built specifically for running rivers and rafting companies began to appear. In fact, in the 1972 Munich Olympics, athletes competed in whitewater sports for the very first time. Now known as the canoe slalom, competitors maneuver through the rapids with either a canoe or kayak. Here in Fremont County, rafting is a big industry. Between 1982 and 1992, only a ten year span, the rafting business grew at a rate of 18% each year and was already a $30 million industry." And it's only grown since then!

Three things we know for sure:
1. Tourists from all over still come to our sweet section of the Arkansas. We feel fortunate that we get to experience it more often than just during vacation!

2. A day or afternoon on the river is just as good (if not better) than a day at the beach.

3. The vessels have improved since the 1980s but the theory remains the same. Whitewater is awesome!
See you this weekend!
Many thanks to Becki Logsdon for these great articles!

07/01/2023

Grab some river rec gear and cool off this summer!🥵