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Commercial rafting on Blue River still to be determined

Dan Foley guides a group down the Blue River.
Photo from Performance Tours Rafting

Local commercial rafting guides are still hopeful they’ll be able to lead trips down the Blue River this month.

Lauren Swanson, spokesperson for Performance Tours Rafting wrote in a text Tuesday, June 15, that local guiding companies have not had any news from the Denver Water Board on the Blue River, though the companies are still hoping for releases from Dillon Reservoir to provide raftable flows at some point this summer.

Swanson said guides have awesome conditions on Browns Canyon on the Arkansas River, south of Summit County.



“We are very fortunate to have the Upper Arkansas Voluntary Flow Management Program to support commercial and private boating interests on the Ark,” Swanson said. “I was out on Browns this weekend — lots of water to splash around in on these hot, hot days.”

Rafting on the Blue River north of Silverthorne is typically contingent on water released through the Dillon Dam in Silverthorne. Performance Tours owner Kevin Foley said earlier this month that Denver Water likely would need to divert any and all water in the reservoir down to the Front Range rather than to the Blue River due to less snowpack and lower water levels than average years.



Foley said commercial rafting operations like Performance Tours only send out guided trips if river flows are a minimum of 500 cubic feet per second. On Tuesday, Denver Water reported Dillon Reservoir at an inflow of 657 cfs, an outflow of 90 cfs and 97% full.


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