Want to go rafting with kids? We Brought a Toddler Rafting. Here's How It Went. 

Parenthood is a constant ebb and flow of finding what works and moving on from what doesn't. Few things in life will challenge you and demand such creativity, adaptability, and steadfastness as raising young children.

When my husband and I first started dating in our mid-twenties, we had both individually fallen in love with various outdoor sports: skiing, paddleboarding, hiking, mountain biking. And while we found joy in all of those, multi-day raft trips were where we really found our flow together.

We jokingly refer to ourselves as "early adopters" of parenthood, being some of the first of our friend group to have a kid. For the two-ish years since our daughter was born, we've mostly cheered from the sidelines while friends carried on with the adventures we used to share. We still manage plenty of skiing and hiking, but we'd generally steered clear of anything heavy in risk or logistics, especially rafting. As people who once spent three weeks living out of an 18-foot raft through the Grand Canyon, it had been bittersweet. Part of the deal we signed up for, but missed nonetheless.

Then we exited babyhood (roughly the first 18 months, for the uninitiated) and stepped into the beautiful chaos of toddlerhood. And with it came a surprising sense of freedom.

Here's what we've learned to be true about toddlers: 1) They demand your full attention, whether you're at home or in the backcountry. 2) They are so much easier to manage when they're outside. 3) They mostly just want to be with you, doing whatever you're doing. And 4) almost anything is possible as long as you pack enough snacks.

Babyhood is sweet and awe-inspiring, but there's a lot to manage with a squirmy bundle who relies on you for absolutely everything. Toddlers, on the other hand, cannot wait to prove, to you or themselves, that they can do it on their own. Suddenly, though you must stay attentive (they have shockingly low self-preservation instincts), you have free hands. And with those free hands, you can do things like go to recreation.gov, search for river permits, and snag yourself an early-season San Juan rafting permit. You can use those same hands to call some friends and ask if they want to join you and your toddler on a 5-day, 4-night trip through the lower canyon of the San Juan River.

So that's exactly what we did. This would be our first multi-day rafting trip with our toddler. We set some parameters for our planning process- if the weather was going to be colder than the seasonal average or had any chance of extremes like snow or high winds, we would cancel the permit. We also made a point to invite people that we knew would be happy to share their trip with a toddler (we get it, they aren’t for everyone). We also had one other family join the trip with their kiddo, which made getting to camp every day even more exciting! 

The trip went better than either of us ever expected.

We had gorgeous, 80-degree weather. Our daughter loved being on the boat, like really, truly loved it. We sang more rounds of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" than we have in our combined lifetimes. We made smart calls when we needed to, like having Dad row the one consequential rapid while the rest of us walked the bank. We applied sunscreen like it was going out of style. We had boat dance parties, incredible camp dinners, and only a couple of truly epic meltdowns.

And then there were the snacks, because with toddlers, there are always snacks. Our daughter has a BAR U EAT every single day, on the water or off, so those were non-negotiable. Beyond that, when rafting with a kid, we leaned into novelty. Pringles were a hit with their indestructible cans, endlessly entertaining, and novel enough to feel like a real treat. We also kept lots of seltzers and hydrating drinks (plus some beer for the parents) on hand. The right snack at the right moment is one of the most reliable tools in a toddler parent's arsenal, and out there on the river, we used every one of them.

If you're a parent wondering if the adventures you loved are behind you, they're not. They just look a little different now. Louder, slower, and requiring about three times the snacks. But they are also fuller. There's something about watching your kid experience the river for the first time, seeing the wonder on her face as the canyon walls rose around us, the delight of splashing water, and the way she fell asleep each night utterly spent and happy, that made every logistical challenge worth it. We didn't just survive five days on the San Juan with a toddler; we thrived! Our daughter is still talking about her “River Twip” and “Mommy’s Boat,” and asking when the next one will be. 

Written by Olivia Goldsworthy