New Wave No Wave

The New Wave 'No Wave' Family Float

For those with young children or aged family members, this half-day float trip (Class 2) is just the ticket! Because this trip accompanies the Rio Grande Gorge full day trip it provides an opportunity for the whole family to spend the morning and lunch time together, with the floaters getting off after lunch while the rest of the family gets to do the rapids. Those who get off can view the rest of the trip from overlooks along Hwy. 68. We meet you at the County Line, leave your car at the drop-off spot and take you to the put-in. You are dropped off at your car around 1: 30 PM. Bring along a change of clothes. 

Adults: $52  Child 6-11 years or Group of 10+: $42 Child 4 or 5: $25

New Wave No Wave Family Float:               

Rio Grande Rafting trips are available in the vicinity of Taos, in northcentral New Mexico. Santa Fe Rafting trips also take place on the Rio Grande, fifty-five miles north of Santa Fe.

The Rio Grande river rises in the San Juan Mountains of southcentral Colorado. It flows eastward past Creede and enters the San Luis Valley. The valley is a vast flat lake-bed. With the aid of the Rio Grande, the valley is farmed intensively - large amounts of water are diverted from the river. At Alamosa the river turns south and heads for New Mexico. At the southern margin of the San Luis Valley, and 10 miles north of the New Mexico state line, the Rio Grande begins to cut the Rio Grande Gorge. The Rio Grande Gorge runs 68 miles through southern Colorado and New Mexico, ending as the Rio Grande enters the Espanola Valley, just north of Santa Fe.

There are no Rio Grande Rafting trips in the San Luis Valley nor are there any Santa Fe Rafting trips in the Espanola Valley.

The entirety of the Gorge is cut into basalt rock - deposited as lava flows. Lava flows and volcanos are common in this area, the result of massive faulting that is known collectively as the Rio Grande Rift. Springs in the Rio Grande Gorge and tributary rivers and streams recharge the Rio Grande in the Rio Grande Gorge.

At first the Rio Grande flows placidly into New Mexico, but in the vicinity of an extinct volcano known as Ute Mountain the river starts dropping more rapidly, producing the Class 4 (rated as “difficult”) Razorblade Rapids whitewater section. This section ends at Dunn's Bridge, at the only spot where a road enters the Gorge. The road descends Arroyo Hondo, which is carved by the Rio Hondo, draining from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the area of the Taos Ski Valley ski resort.

This road provides access to the next section, called the Lower Taos Box or just the Taos Box. The Box whitewater section ends at Taos Junction Bridge. Here the river enters the Orilla Verde (“Green Banks”) Recreation Area, administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Developed campgrounds are located along the riverside for seven miles in this very beautiful portion of the Rio Grande Gorge, accessed by NM 570. The Rio Grande is gentle in this portion (Class 2, "easy"), making for a relaxing "float" (little or no whitewater) trip.

Our New Wave No Wave half-day float trip traverses the Orilla Verde Recreation Area, accompanying our full-day Rio Grande Gorge trip. We lunch downstream in the vicinity of Pilar and end the trip at Quartzite site, on NM 68, where the Racecourse Rapids begin. The New Wave No Wave half-day trip is identical to the morning portion of the Rio Grande Gorge full-day trip, plus lunch, which it accompanies.

This stretch of the Rio Grande is ideal for children aged four and five, and for elderly or less-adventuresome persons.

For more information, call us today at 1 (800) 984-1444.

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