I just went on a two day rafting trip on the Deschutes River with four of my friends. Of course, the scenery, whether and River were fabulous. What was even more astounding, was the level of service, quality and absolute gentlemenliness of Georg and his crew! This was like being on a five star cruise with gourmet food, everything taken care of and entertaining conversations with our guide, who is also the owner of the company. I could not recommend this company more! Kudos! read more

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Our family of 4 ( 2 kids, 2 adults) had an amazing day on the McKenzie River with our guide Patrick. He was absolutely fantastic! I laughed more today than I have all year. The lunch was fantastic- the best I've ever had rafting ( done 6-7 other rafting trips). My favorite part of the trip was getting in the water and enjoying nature. If you're deciding between this trip and the Deschutes, definitely choose this one with High Country! read more

Went on a Half Day trip on the Mckenzie River Oregon. Four in our group with two travelers. Our tour guide Craig was the best!! Great instructions at the beginning, one of our group wasn't holding on and went over, we saved him! Craig made the trip fun, took us on a great ride. If you want a great adventure, (but not to dangerous) that you will feel for a couple days, this is it! Scenery was totally awesome, beautiful clear water, huge canopy of trees. Great memories made and made some new friends along the way. Very professional, Excellent service, 5 stars all the way. read more

Teach your driver (blonde, RBF woman) not to park directly in front of other groups' gear. You do not have priority just because you have a "large, commercial group". It's shocking how disrespectful of other boaters she was. Seemed to have ruined her clients' experience. Too bad for them. Zero stars. read more

well worth the trip our guide Craig did a fantastic job he was cool to be with for the trip. our 6 year old came on the trip with my wife and I. The guides brought him extra gear just to make sure he would be warm. all our gear was provided which helped out allot with the cold water of the Makenzie. if anybody is looking for a guide service for rafting these guys are great . read more

I booked a rafting trip for July 11, 2020 and paid in full up front. Due to the current situation with Covid-19 we had to cancel our trip to Oregon (my sisters wedding weekend). I sent two emails, the first on 3/30 & second on 4/12 and followed up with 2 phone messages- THEY DID NOT REPLY to either my phone or email messages and did not submit a refund. Their website reads: " Cancellations for river trips: You may cancel your trip 30 days prior to the trip date for a full refund." We are well within this cancellation period. I am extremely disappointed, we gave them plenty of time to respond and this shows really poorly on their side. Everyone is struggling amidst these times, there is no excuse when they set their own refund policy!! I disputed the charge with my bank and hope at least I can get resolution that way. read more

Each year our family meets in Oregon over the 4th of July for a reunion, and we always go river rafting. In 2020 and 2021 we chose High Country Expeditions (HCE). We had such a good experience with our guide Bill in 2020 that we decided to use this company again instead of going with our tried-and-true company Ouzel Outfitters (they were booked in 2020, the reason for our changing companies.) 2021 was a very different story, and it was because of the owner of the company Georg Adelt. We had our largest group in many years, 25 which included several children. On HCE website they advertised photography available upon request. So, I booked the trip and requested photography. I called the company a couple of different times for various reasons (additional rafters, sizes, etc., and each time I reminded them that I wanted a photographer to take photos of us as we embarked and then action photos in the rafts on the river. Raft day comes, and there is a photographer (the owner Georg and one of his daughters assisting him.) He took our group photo on the riverbank and then many photos while we were on the river as we could see them from our rafts snapping photos. All went well or so I thought. The problem came when I tried to actually get the photos from Georg. I called and texted him several times. The first time it took him a few weeks to get back to me saying he had been rafting on the Rogue River, then it was school starting and getting his daughters back in school. The excuses continued. I had told him he could email me the photos, send them through Dropbox or another company of his choosing or put them on a flash drive and snail mail them to me. At one point he said he had snail mailed them to me, and they were returned in the mail to him and asked for my address again. This went on from July until October of 2021. I never did get even one photo and had to get my credit card company involved to get a refund for the $200.00 I paid up front. The money was the least of it, the heartbreak was not having any photos of our family. I will NEVER use this company again because of Georg's deception. read more

This was my 2nd time with HCE but was quite different than the 1st. I was in the back, right in front of our guide Trevor. He had hit me twice with his oars but never said to lean forward or move up. When we hit rapids he hit a submerged tree stump, lost control of his oars and hit me in the back, causing me to fall overboard. I am not a strong swimmer but my son-in-law, Tom, jumped in to help me. When I surfaced I found Trevor standing in the raft with rope in hand but frozen with indecision. Thanks to Tom, I was pulled to a 2nd raft that waited for us. Down river we met up with Trevor who verbally bashed Tom & told him he was stupid to have gone in to help me. (Yet Trevor did nothing). When the trip ended and we were on shore, Trevor never, never came to me. I would have expected "are you ok", "glad you're ok" or even "sorry it happened". He did not acknowledge there was even an incident. In my opinion, High Country may be fine but do NOT travel with Trevor as he should not be interested with human life. read more

The Mckenizie river is bad ass! Our guide Sean was very knowledgeable and capable dude. He steered us around with ease and it was very low impact. The water is cold so use the gear. Highly recommend. read more

Just our luck my friends and I came on the coldest day of the summer but our experience was still super fun! Garret was our river tour guide and was funny and had an abundance of knowledge on the river and the area, shout out to him for making this trip hilarious. Staff provided wet suits, boots, and these windbreaker like jackets which helped with the cold which was great. read more

What a great experience! So much fun. Four of us joined a guided trip that included two 6- person rafts. We made our way down a beautiful section of the wild McKenzie River after Labor Day. It was a first white water trip for two of us, senior citizens, and we are ready to go again! HCE provided gear that kept us comfortable even though the river was quite cold. It meant all the splashing was exhilarating, not excruciating! This company offers trips on other rivers so lots of possibilities. Josh was just the best guide! He is experienced, highly capable, relaxed, friendly, informative, tuned in to his rafters,and fun! Aubrey, in the office, was also friendly and helpful! We ended our day with a soak in one of the pools at Belknap Hot Springs and Hotel and a very good meal back at Obsidian Grill. Then we returned to our riverfront cabin, Riversong, at McKenzie Riverside Cottages, a lovely place to stay. read more

First off, the rafting itself was great. We really enjoyed sitting on the front of the raft and taking in the gorgeous river. All the equipment we needed was provided to us, we felt safe, and I think $60 per person for a half-day trip is very reasonable. Unfortunately, we experienced very little professionalism from this company. Booking and finding their office in McKenzie Bridge was a breeze, but our good experience pretty much stopped there. After checking in right on time, we weren't really told when we'd be leaving or what we should be doing, so we just took a seat at the picnic tables, used the restroom, put on sunscreen, etc. After about 15 minutes I HAPPENED to see one of the same guys I had seen checking in get up and walk out in a line of people. We rushed to follow them but there was no announcement whatsoever such as "High Country half-day rafting trip leaving now!" Nada. Even on the bus, they never once said the company name. We had to simply hope we were in the right place until I finally confirmed with someone in the front. I'm sure they did a head count, but I feel like it's kind of important to confirm with people that they're in the right place before you start driving down the road. Once on the raft, we really weren't impressed with our tour guide. He never once said the company's name correctly, calling it "High Cascade" at least three times. That just seems so unprofessional. He also spoke very quietly when giving commands such as "forward" and "stop," which seems pretty odd considering we're going through loud rapids where it is difficult to hear from the front of the boat. I'm 26 and I could only hear him about 40% of the time - how would a 50-year-old's hearing fare? The worst part is he would sometimes act miffed when we didn't stop rowing immediately, even after we told him twice that we couldn't hear his commands. The positives: he told us little tidbits about the river during quiet times but didn't try to talk the entire time, which was appreciated. The photography situation was downright confusing. We were told that this woman would be taking photographs of us along the way and that we could buy a package of "about 30 photos" for $50 after the trip. Well, she took a photo of us before we left and then we saw her one other time along the river. We saw some other people taking photos at another point, but I have no idea whether or not they were even affiliated with High Country since I never saw the woman again. That's fine, I thought - I bet she's just not visible but she's getting some sweet candid shots. Unfortunately I never got a chance to find out since photographs were NEVER mentioned again. Not a peep on the bus ride back or when we arrived back at their office. We wandered off the bus feeling confused and not one person offered us the chance to view our photos or purchase them. Okay... Once we got home, I emailed to say I had a lovely time on the river and asked how I could view or purchase photos. NO RESPONSE. It's been a week now - I gave them ample time to make things right before writing this review. Thanks a lot for the "30 photos." What a joke. Finally, the tipping situation. There was a sign on the bus that said tips were gladly accepted. Even though we weren't overly fond of our tour guide, we are polite and always tip when we go out on excursions. We ran back to the car to grab cash and returned to the bus area, but the guides were already gone. So we made our way through the courtyard, trying to catch up with them. We finally got our guide's attention once we got to the office and said, "Hi, we just wanted to give you this." And I KID YOU NOT, he turned to the guy behind him and said, "For him?" .....Why would the tip be for a different tour guide than the one we went with? That makes no sense. It was like he didn't even recognize that we were the same people he just spent three hours with. I always tip, and I actually regretted running after him to give him that. Wow. So uh...take this review as you will. The river itself is glorious and I'd love to go back, but there's no way I'd ever use this company again, especially after the ignored email. read more

We took our 5 year old grand child along. Our raft almost tip over and the child was hanging out of the raft. Our guide Mindy was hanging to her with all her might. All turned out good thanks to our amazing guides Mindy & Holly. Thank you ladies! You really are a kick ass team! read more

Awesome rafting experience with chachi (so) he was funny, knowledgable, and not overly talkative or annoying. He kept us nice and safe but we had a great time going over the rapids. I'd definitely raft here again! read more

We scheduled our weekend get away because of this rafting adventure. We reserved for April 7 since March 25. To make the story short, as the date was getting closer, we called them so many times to confirm : their answers were," We're still waiting for a permit. We will let you know once we get it." On April 6 and April 7, we called & left messages. We emailed the company. NO RESPONSE!!!!..Nobody in their office also(in the resort where we stayed at). It would've been nice to let us now that it was cancelled or something. Just total DISREGARD!!!...We will NEVER recommend this company. read more

We went on the McKenzie river half day trip. First, the river is beautiful with the clearest water I've seen of the four rivers I've rafted so far. Not a lot of rapids but enough to get wet and to have fun. It is also a long trip for a half day. HCE staff explained safety similar to other guide companies and they all seemed well trained and they were nice enough. The reason for the four stars instead of five is our guide didn't go out of his way to do fun things like we've had other guides do. He said sure when we asked if someone could "ride the bull" and sit in the front but he didn't suggest it. He also didn't have us put paddles up together or other silly but fun things we've done before. The gear I was given was worn and my wet suit needed to be replaced. The right leg of suit having missing padding that had torn/worn off. It was fine enough but not five star worthy. A couple of simple things HCE could do to improve the trip is to do the pickup on time - they were 15-20 min late for the AM trip. They could also buy a few big tarps and out them down on the ground where we changed into our gear so we wouldn't get pine needles and dirt/rocks on our feet and into our suits. Last note, I'd recommend against River Stone expeditions. When we were on the river, we saw them partially capsize a raft with people in it against a pillar and HCE went and did a quick rescue. Their guides also didn't seem to know river etiquette and their rafts were 2/3 the size of HCE's and they had the number of people in them. It looked crowded. HCE rafts were plenty of room and good quality. Enjoy, this is a fun way to spend a morning / afternoon! read more

Yesterday was my first rafting trip. It couldn't have been better. Our guide Josh was a true river professional. He knew the river and made sure we had a wonderful time. I couldn't be happier with my experience. It was so gorgeous out there. Ask for Josh. And don't forget to tip! He earned it. I didn't have any cash and actually made it my mission to find an ATM so I could go back the next day and give him a tip. That tells u how awesome this trip was. read more

High Country Expeditions - The mckinzie river - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - McKenzie Bridge, Oregon

Our group of eight loved our experience with HCE. We did the half day trip with most of us being first time rafters. Highly recommend this river and this company. Our guide Kevin was the best and made our day. He is super knowledgeable about the local wildlife, the art of rafting, and the "celebrity" inhabitants of the houses along the river. If you have a day in Eugene open, this was a highlight that I would recommend to any family. read more

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The Hardy clan had a wonderful time! Our guide Deacon, gave clear instructions and made the trip super fun! Would highly recommend this company!!! Thanks for a fabulous outing for a bunch of beginners! read more

What an awesome rafting experience on the McKenzie River with Captain Dennis. He was great and all 10 of us had a great time! Was definitely worth our money...we got more than we expected. If you're ever in that area, the McKenzie River trip is a must and I would definitely recommend High Country Expeditions. Captain Dennis ROCKS!!! Aloha from Hawaii. read more

High Country Expeditions - McKenzie River - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - McKenzie Bridge, Oregon

I had the pleasure of reuniting with my high school girl friends for the weekend and we decided to go rafting on our trip. We had the pleasure of having Haley as our guide. She was awesome! She fit right in with us nutty girls! She was full of "nerdy facts" about the river and environment. But her sense of humor was light and fun. She told some great jokes, with great taste. She dared us and challenged us and helped us to have the best time ever. She allowed us to jump in and just ripped us out of the water when we were ready. I was amazed by her super human strength! When i go again I will definitely request Haley! read more

High Country Expeditions - Rafting/Kayaking Near Me - McKenzie Bridge, Oregon

Great trip. Guide was Chachi and he was great company and knows a lot about the area. Vey safe. I was afraid of river but after it was done I loved it and concurred my fear of river rafting. read more

Took the full day trip and would definitely recommend it anyone looking for an exciting time! Danny was an awesome guide who wasn't afraid to try some different things on the river. Lunch was delicious and our entire family enjoyed this experience. Thanks Danny & HCE! read more

I have been on lots of river tours and this is my new favorite. Our tour guild Bill was very informative of the area and even helped me find a cabin to stay at on the river. I would recommend this river tour company to everyone. The water was of course cold (no surprise there), but the wind coming up river was hot and you dried off as fast as you got wet. read more

A couple of weeks ago, our party of 8 went on a half-day trip down the McKenzie River with Bill as our guide. What a breathtaking, thrilling adventure! Bill was confident, knowledgable, and engaging, giving us a taste of excitement, but maintaining control the whole time. The process from reserving our spots to checking in at the office to the bus ride, donning gear, quick tutorial, embarkation, and all the reverse on the flip side was simple and efficient and the price was well worth the great time we all had. The rapids are mostly mild, but wild enough to offer a great time to amateurs, and the river is verdantly beautiful. We highly recommend Bill and High Country Expeditions for kids, adults, and even grandparents! read more

I cannot comment on the rafting, because that didn't happen. I can comment on the nightmare that was trying to buy gift cards. I called over a month in advance to buy two gift cards, for an upcoming birthday. When the cards didn't arrive a couple of weeks later I called again, and again and ... in all I called nine times. Messages weren't returned, when I did get through to someone they promised to send the cards but they never arrived. The birthday gift was ruined, in the end I wound up giving a last minute scarf. read more

Brought the whole family - grandkids to gramps on a fun ride down the McKenzie River. This is a really pretty river. After doing the McKenzie River Trail, you've gotta float this river. You can choose from a tame ride to please the older folks, or something with a bit more excitement - white water rapids to pump some adrenaline. The river guides were great and they knew the river well. I can't wait to go again. read more

Awesome family experience. Bill was a great guide with lots of information about the river and in full control of the raft. My first time rafting at 60 years old....it was great. We did the half day and it was just enough for a first timer read more

Had a great time on the river yesterday. Everyone at High Country was wonderful to deal with from making the reservation, to checking in and then enjoying the day on the river. Our guide, Hunter, was terrific and lots of fun! Highly recommend you try this when in the area. Fun time for you and old. read more