Join us this July for a Family Trip with added flexibility. ECHO will spend four days rafting the Wild & Scenic Rogue River with renowned yoga instructor Dennis Eagan. Dennis has practiced yoga for over 13 years and completed a two year Advance Studies Program with Rodney Yee. He currently teaches in the California, but will break away to accompany this outdoor yoga adventure.

Each morning and evening Dennis will lead a yoga session in the tranquil and serene setting surrounding the Rogue. Days will be filled with lush scenery, lots of wildlife and fun rapids. ECHO guides will provide delicious vegetarian meals to complement the sense of wellness. Your entire family will be engaged and enthusiastic on this relaxing river retreat!

Learn more about the Family Yoga Trip

ECHO is excited for the return of Mumm Napa for a river trip on the Rogue this August! If you have never joined one of these trips, you will be amazed at the combination of days spent braving whitewater and nights sampling still and sparkling wines crafted in the Napa Valley.

ECHO owners, Dick & Joe, dreamed up the brilliant combination of a wine tasting with a river trip over 20 years ago and have managed to accompany many of the trips over the years. For the last 10 years, ECHO has chosen Mumm Napa to provide wine and a wine expert. Days will be spent enjoying the scenery, wildlife and rapids of the Rogue River in southern Oregon, and each evening Tamra Lotz, assistant winemaker at Mumm, will offer a variety of Napa Valley sparkling wines crafted using the traditional methods from Champagne, France. Tamra will also share Mumm’s exclusive collection of still wines. This trip guarantees adventure and “a bit of bubbly” under the stars.

If you are looking to combine your rafting adventure with a touch of refinement, this is the trip for you!

Learn more about Wine & Whitewater, 2008

Learn more about Mumm Napa

ECHO has been allocated three small start dates on the Rogue River in southwest Oregon. They are September 3, 5, and 9. What makes them so special is that the maximum party size is 10 people. In addition, September is a wonderful time to raft the Rogue since the temperatures are moderate and there are few others on the river. If you have a group of eight or more people, the trip is entirely yours. Think about it, your own private float trip with friends and family!

We can tailor many parts of the trip to your liking. For example, the trip length can be three or five days, you can choose to stay in wilderness lodges, the menu can be designed to your wishes, and if you have a favorite ECHO guide, we will try our best to get him or her to be on your crew. A three day trip would make a great bachelor party, a four day trip would be a good family vacation, or a five day trip with a few nights at wilderness lodges would be a great way to relax in the scenic wilderness.

Call us at (800) 652-3246 to learn more about this special opportunity. We love to talk about our trips!

It is no secret the the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and the Rogue River are two of America’s best rafting trips. With spectacular scenery, awesome wildlife, and perfect Class III rapids, the Rogue and Middle Fork make for ideal family vacations. For families looking for a few more thrills and spills than a 16-foot raft can provide, ECHO River Trips is now offering unique wilderness adventures: four to six day family expeditions down Oregon’s friendly Rogue River and Idaho’s pristine Middle Fork of the Salmon River, using only inflatable kayaks.

What makes these trips different from ECHO’s regular raft trips? Instead of riding as passengers or paddlers in a big raft, each guest will paddle their own kayak for the entire stretch of the river. With help from experienced professional guides, guests will rig their own drybags onto their kayaks. Once boats are rigged and the “expedition” is ready to go, guests will experience whitewater in the most exciting way possible: up close and personal. With just a paddle, and directions from the fearless leaders, each person in a duckie! will paddle through boulder slaloms, plunge into frothy holes, and glide over glassy waves to their heart’s content. Maneuverable, stable, and incredibly fun, duckies! allow adventurers to challenge the rapids on their own for a more personalized whitewater experience than rafting. Because each person has their own kayak, Duckie! trips travel light and fast, allowing more opportunities enjoy the marvels of these premier river canyons. There will be ample time to hike in the side canyons, soak in natural hot springs, take photos of wildlife, and examine Native American pictographs and other archeological sites on the Rogue and Middle Fork canyons.

The progression of the rapids is perfect for beginner paddlers because by the time the trip enters the Impassable Canyon or Mule Creek Canyon, with the most challenging whitewater, everyone will have gained confidence and experience on the easier rapids upstream. Negotiating the fun yet safe Class III rapids is an empowering bonding experience for the whole family. On Duckie! trips, the emphasis is on exploration and adventure over luxury in camp. This minimalist style of river trips embodies the spirit of wilderness adventure on which ECHO River Trips was founded over 35 years ago and creates lasting memories and tall tales that will be retold for years.

We are offering a duckie! trip on the Rogue River in June and on the Middle Fork of the Salmon in August. Learn more about duckie! trips

(well, red wine too)

Imagine rafting the beautiful Rogue River for four days, and camping luxuriously for three nights.

Imagine gathering before dinner to taste excellent California wines while listening to a distinguished vintner talking about how and where the wine was made

Imagine eating wonderful food, planned to complement the great wines.

Imagine running exciting rapids in rafts and inflatable kayaks.

Imagine bald eagles up close, river otters along the shore, osprey diving into the river for fish, and black bears strolling through the woods.

Imagine sharing this special experience with someone you love.

Join Tamra Lotz, Assistant Wine Maker for Mumm California and Dick Linford, co-owner of ECHO for this very special river trip. We hope you can join us!!

Price: $815 per person
Price includes tents, sleeping bags and air mattresses, wine, and meals beginning with lunch the first day and ending with lunch the last day

Learn more about our wine trips or call us at (800) 652-3246 to hold your space.

Yoga instructor and long time ECHO guide Dennis Eagan has just scheduled a “family yoga” trip on the Rogue. This is a four day camping trip that starts July 24, 2007. He has put this trip together as an offering for people that want a yoga retreat they can combine with famiy time.

Dennis focuses on yoga training for outdoor sports enthusiast. Dennis is an experienced skier, kayaker, and climber who turned to yoga to maintain his abilities in these sports. He enjoys helping others do the same.

Learn More About Yoga Trips on the Rogue River

Throughout the spring and early summer, ECHO River Trips is offering a whitewater adventure with all the comforts of home. These three-day lodge trips on Oregon’s Rogue River combine running the wild and scenic River by day and relaxing in a rustic riverside lodge at night. The private lodges are comfortable, providing all the amenities of home, and are set back from the River so they can’t be seen. Most of the rooms are in cabins away from the main lodge. The lodge trips begin May 19 and 29, June 6, 13, 20, and 27, 2007.

The Rogue River offers the perfect combination of exciting but safe rapids, warm water, a lovely green canyon, a comfortable pace, and plenty of wildlife. It is a wonderful river for families and beginners, yet it still offers enough whitewater excitement for young adults, and river veterans. Over three days, guests will travel the same 38 mile stretch of River that is usually done in four days on the camping-only trip.

The first night’s stay is at the Black Bar Lodge. The staff at the lodge will transport guests’ luggage and equipment to their rooms. There is ample time to hike around the premises or relax on the lawn. Dinner will be served as a group in the lodge. This is a day to tell stories about the upcoming rapids and bond with other travelers.

The second night will be spent at a scenic lodge downriver from the famous Blossom Bar Rapid. Again, the staff at the lodge will transport guests’ bags to their rooms and guests will have the opportunity to explore the grounds and participate in many of the activities that the lodge has to offer. These activities include a five-hole “wild and scenic” gold course, hiking trails, and a wide variety of games. A hearty dinner will be served inside the lodge amongst newfound friends.

On the last day of the trip, guests will wake up to breakfast and coffee before loading into the rafts and floating down to our take-out at Foster Bar.

Now that the season is behind us, we’re taking time to reflect on this past season. We’ve been particularly touched by one of our customers who sent us a friendly email and enthusiastically answered our evaluation questions. This is from an experienced rafting family that did their first commercial trip (on the Rogue) this past summer.

His response to “What is the one thing you liked most about this rafting trip?” was:

“Everything about this trip rates a “10″ — the guides, the scenery, the food, the wildlife. But the sheer luxury of our first guided trip was the creme de la creme.”

And his response to: “Why did you like that aspect of the rafting trip the most?” was:

“After 8-10 private trips each exceeding a week (the Salmon, the Middle Fork, Grand Canyon), we are familiar with the amount of effort that goes into planning & preparation, daily setup & take down, & post-trip cleanup — we didn’t miss it…”

After the trip, he sent us the following email:

“For our first commercial trip, ECHO on the Rogue is going to be hard to top! (Maybe ECHO on the Middle Fork…?) It’s hard to rank what was best: the wildlife, the guides, the scenery, the food, or the camaraderie. But my wife knows — the ease of the trip ranks No. 1 with her! No pre-trip cooking & freezing, no packing & unpacking the boats, no on-the-beach setup, cooking & cleanup; she’s definitely among your No. 1 fans.

I don’t know whether we just lucked out with our guides or if they’re typical of ECHO’s employees, although I suspect the latter is the case. Chip, Amber & Jessie were everything I’d look for in river guides — skilled & knowledgeable, good cooks, good company, & good medics. (They had a chance to show their first-aid skills when one of our group avulsed a fingertip.) And given the somewhat random collection of people on the trip, the amity that developed among the entire group was the frosting on the cake, epitomized by the shared e-mail addresses & hugs all around at Foster Bar.”

After a great season, we’re looking forward to our Rogue River trips for 2007 and we’ve added the new dates and prices on the Rogue Availability Page.

As usual, we’ll be offering a wine trip with Mumm Napa as well as a river guide school for those interesting in learning the skills required to be a river guide. This years’ guide school will be in June (instead of March….brrrr) for those that like learning in warmer weather.

We haven’t added any family trips to our schedule yet, but expect to offer several family trips for 2007.

OREGON - For many, the phrase “call of the wild” brings with it a mental picture that consists of campfires, sleeping on the ground, fighting off mosquitoes, not-so-savory meals, and aching muscles.

The team at ECHO River Trips realizes that while there are many people that love the idea of adventure, there are many who still prefer dinner at a table, a roof over their heads, showers, and a bed to sleep in.

The new, three day Lodge Trips created by ECHO offer the best of both worlds: running a Wild and Scenic River by day and relaxing in rustic elegance at night, offering an often much-needed escape from the stresses of every day life.

At the center of this vacation is the Rogue River, located in southwest Oregon and deemed Wild and Scenic by Congress. The river offers a near perfect combination of exciting but safe rapids, warm water, a lovely green canyon, a comfortable pace and plenty of wildlife. It is a wonderful river for families and beginners, yet offers enough whitewater excitement for young adults and river veterans.

The journey embarks at the Graves Creek boat ramp and flows through such rapids as Rainey Falls, Tyee, Wildcat and Upper and Lower Black Bar Falls before arriving at Black Bar Lodge. Because there is no camp to set up, there is ample time for guests to go for a hike, play frisbee on the expansive lawn or even take a nap. In the evening, after a family style dinner, guests can share stories and learn about the exciting rapids that will be encountered the next day.

The second night will be spent at the scenic Half Moon Bar Lodge, downriver from the famous Blossom Bar Rapid. The Half Moon offers many activities, including a five hole “wild and scenic” golf course, multiple hiking trails, and a wide variety of games.

ECHO has been successfully guiding white-water trips for 34 years and the team believes that a river trip is a social gathering as much as an outdoor adventure. The three day/two night package is available on four dates in May as well as two in June, and priced at $745/adult and $695/youth.

Learn more about Rogue River Lodge Trips.