Natasha and Rainbow (they really are sisters!) are beautiful human beings! Fun, knowledgeable and…read moregracious. I just started kayaking this year and I am hooked! I never kayaked before and after taking Kayaking 101 and going on handful of excursions, I now feel confident on the water. They know all the waterways in the area and the wildlife that inhabit them. I 100% recommend their paddle adventures to be the best day, or evening, you have ever spent enjoying nature on the water!

What an amazing experience with Natisha and Rainbow. We booked a MST paddle and they worked with us…read moreto coordinate dropoff and pickup. Will certainly be joining for a small trip soon and another multi day paddle down the Nuse river along the MST!

Kayaking, Tubing and Ground camping is always a unique experience. Great people!…read more We always pleased!

Friendly staff, easy booking process, and a very peaceful 3 hour float ! The river is pretty…read morestagnant, so you will need some upper body strength to get moving in some spots, but it is very relaxing for the most part. I was hoping to see some wildlife, but only saw a squirrel and a bunch of dragonflies! Highly recommended this company and would definitely do this again.

Love it!! This is our third year enjoying kayaking with friends and family. The staff is amazing,…read morefriendly, and welcoming. The equipment is always in good condition and the process is very well organized. I love that you can email them and they respond quickly! Looking forward to next year's adventure!! i recommend them 100%!!

Absolute WORST experience I've had in a very, very long time. After being checked in, my family…read more(three children and 3 adults) went down to get our floats, got in the water and started to float (no staff was there to help or assist like any other rafting or float place I've been), the staff said it would take about 5 hours (it took 6) - the wind was against us that day and I had to essentially pull us the entire 2 miles - all the while being blown back in the opposite direction. There was brush all along the bottom of the river slowing everyone down. When we finally got to the end, we had to ask someone that happened to be fishing where the exit ramp was. No signage, no staff to help, but a missed call from the front office asking where we were. When we finally got up the ramp, I called and they seemed annoyed and surprised we were 20 minutes after the last group. The driver was quiet and acted mad that he had to come get us, upon check out the lady up front said we had to pay a fee because we were 20 mins "late" (no mention of this in person or anywhere physically visible) - how in the heck can we help the river being low and the wind working against us? $300 plus $60 late fee turned our trip into a nightmare. They need staff in the water guiding/assisting, which they don't have, in case something does happen. Main takeaway - DO NOT GO HERE. It's terrible and the staff seemed annoyed that they even had to be there. JUDGING FROM THE REVIEWS, THEY DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK - actually scan thru and read them, but read the RESPONSES from Cape Fear River Adventures as well - GO TO "LOWEST" up top under "SORT BY" and read them ALL - these are normally buried so far down that people don't see them. Many reviews are super similar and it's definitely obvious that they don't take criticism well AT ALL - keep that in mind too! STAY AWAY. This place gives Lillington a bad name.

We rented a canoe from Frog Hollow for a couple of hours on the weekend. It was SUPER affordable,…read morecheaper than anywhere I've ever been and much cheaper than renting a boat by far. They provided everything we needed (paddles, life jackets) and gave us a quick 60 second refresher on how to use the canoe before we headed off. We were at one of the channels off of Falls lake, and they gave us advice on which direction was the best to go off towards. It was pretty hot out, but being so close to the water made it cooler and the shade lowered the temperature a lot too. Along the way, we saw turtles, fish, and a couple of herons. The whole experience was very peaceful, relaxing, and low-stress. It was a great day to spend a warm morning outside, although I would recommend booking an earlier or later time in the summer since around noon there isn't really much shade on the water. Will definitely come back for another paddle!

Frog Hollow is a gem for paddling enthusiasts!…read more As someone in my mid-40s learning a young person's sport, I've had two incredible 1-on-1 sessions with Jer on flat water, with another scheduled this week and I can't recommend them enough. Jer's technical expertise, constructive criticism, and what i consider endurance training have been invaluable to build confidence for white water. It's easy to think you understand the sport by reading, watching, and listening, but reality hits when you're underwater and upside down. Jer has been fantastic in sharing both the positive and realistic sides of whitewater paddling, making the experience both challenging and rewarding. I still remind myself "nothing worthwhile comes easy at first". Lastly, if you're looking to improve your skills, fix bad habits, and gain a deeper understanding of the sport, Frog Hollow is the place to be! Thanks, Josh

When you set out to kayak the historic Haw River it's hard to suppress speculative thoughts about…read moreyour adventure and wonder how it will all turn out. This was on our minds as my wife and I drove past an "entering Alamance County" road sign on our way to the Haw River Canoe & Kayak Company at Saxapahaw, North Carolina. A leisurely drive along Swepsonville-Saxapahaw Road parallels the Haw and suggests a hint of our forthcoming adventure. A tough bridge built for hard times stands over massive, craggy, dark gray rocks, chiseled into the river bottom by the waters bonding the town of Saxapahaw to the earth and the history of this area. On arrival, we could see paddlers struggling to sandwich their watercraft among the rocks around the Saxapahaw bridge. But we never foresaw when we left here, our memories would bear an indelible imprint of this place as "Aramanche" -- a place where Native Americans saw water flow through blue clay. One reason to rent a Kayak here is to unplug yourself from the present and reconnect with the past. In fact, the owner and his staff will tell you his fondest wish is for customers is to "unplug and reconnect." When you cast your eyes out over the Haw as you paddle a kayak, you'll see tranquil and rapid running waters, deep cuts into riverbanks and tree lines, and evidence of the dominating torrential waters that have run for millennia along this 110-mile river down to the Cape Fear basin near the Atlantic coast. The geological history of this place is violent. But there's more. There's tons of history and culture to absorb. Generations of native Americans and later, European colonists, are bound up in the history of this river. Native Americans ran The Great Trading Path that ran from Chester County, PA, along the Shenandoah Mountains roughly to where I-81 and route 220 meet near Danville, Virginia, today. From there, settlers found their way into North Carolina along the Haw. Why Go? If you're interested in American history, you'll visit to have fun and to bask vicariously in the river that was once part of the Underground Railroad. Along this river, Quakers would shepherd slaves from house-to-house, across the Ohio River, and into the free territories in the west. If you're a history buffwith an archaeological bent, you'll visit the Haw to find that blue-gray clay the Siouan Indians used as body paint. It was found in Saxapahaw, and the Indians called this clay "Aramanche", meaning, a place where "water flows through blue clay" in Eastern Siouan. If you're interested in seismology, you'll be curious about the natural fault line running from this area down to Charleston, S.C., that triggered the Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886. You can see this line on the surface under a little bridge in the nearby village of Glencoe, N.C., along Highway 62. If you enjoy riding the rapids as a Kayaker, you'll need to sign up for a class-III white-water adventure. The fault line that runs from Glencoe down toward the Cape Fear river basin features sharp drop-offs triggering the rapid waters adrenaline junkies crave. A guided tour along the Haw lasts about 3-hours. Go, unplug, reconnect with American history and, enjoy!

This place is great! Recently came here with some friends for the day and had a blast…read more So it's a little confusing on their website, but you can indeed just rent kayaks, paddle boards or canoes. It made it seem like the only way to go on the river was through signing up for a class, but that's not the case. For $30 you can rent a boat for half the day and they'll drive you upstream a bit to the dock. From there you can go upstream on your own and enjoy some paddling + swimming. We had a great time! There ARE a bunch of fun day trips (and a moonlight night trip!), plus some other routes so I'm definitely going to sign up for one of those. But if you just want to rent for a few hours, that's cool too! Pro tip: Come before 11 a.m. It's a little cooler, and they won't be as crowded.

First and only visit took a bit of a drive from where I lived but did not disappoint. The hiking…read morewas fairly level with a great meditative and uncrowded nature walk. Deserving of good hiking boots to navigate the trail's obstacles.

Nice park with many trails of varying difficulty. A couple trails were closed due to a past storm,…read morebut we still enjoyed our hike along the river

Super nice, good selection for a smallish store, and incredibly nice staff. They also have a nice…read moreselection of touristy merchandise. I'll definitely come back the next time we are at Lake Gaston.

We recently purchased a Hobie Eclipse 12.0 from Lake Gaston Outfitters. When we visited their…read morestore for the first time, we were overly impressed with everything their store has to offer, it is just amazing. Next, Heidi and Dave took the time with us to explain all the features about the Eclipse. We eventually proceeded to purchase the Eclipse and it was delivered by Dave personally with what they call their "white glove" delivery service to customers in the lake Gaston area. Again, Dave took time to go over all the features for setting up the Hobie Eclipse. We are pleased to share that we have taken the Eclipse on the water and absolutely love the board. It is extremely stable, nimble to maneuver, and very fast. We thank Heidi and Dave for their patience and support as we made this purchase and look forward to doing more business with Lake Gaston Outfitters in the future! Gary and Tracy C

We just finished a trip down the Deep River, and it was so fun. I've lived here for almost 10…read moreyears and have never been anywhere near the river, and I'm also a little afraid of water (though I am a strong swimmer). I'll tell you the stuff I was worried about, and how it went! We went tubing. It's easy and fun to do, great with kids, and it's SLOW. More like S...L...O..O...O..W.. Which is okay. The tubes are big, and the cooler tube is really a must, even if you don't have a cooler. The water is slow (but you could see where the high water marks are, and thinking about this river during a hurricane is terrifying). Before going, I was concerned about: Snakes, rapids that no one knew about, underwater things, storms, biting flies, did I mention snakes? Spider webs. None of those things were an issue. This stretch of the river is really tame, and aside from the sort of treacherous climb down to the water in the beginning (it's manageable), it was extremely non threatening. I have one adventurous kid and one nervous one, and both had a great time. We saw a water snake for about 2 seconds. Zero bugs - I don't know why, but there were none. The bottom was pretty nice. You may want to bring a small paddle - tubes are difficult to propel, and it really is a long trip, 3-5 hours. We made it out in 4. There isn't a lot of shade, so obviously sunscreen. If you have a comfortable life jacket that you wear, bring that - they have the orange kind that are so uncomfortable. Really good time, and so easy. Go! Endor Paddle was a great host, he was extremely helpful getting everyone loaded up, didn't rush us, and made everything easy.

No frills for sure! Nice enough folks. Meet up at Deep River Public Park. This is where you park…read moreyour vehicles. Load up into van which ferries passengers down to the Camelback bridges where they provide inflated innertubes which you carry down to the river. Loading area is non-existent. The first 20 minutes floating down the river is bliss. THEN you will enter a war zone! Apparently there are (numerous?) gun clubs alongside the river and that is all you hear for majority of the rest of your ride! Thankfully no stray bullets but this is FAR from a tranquil ride down the river!

I feel so lucky to live close to the dam. I am an hobbyist photographer and the wildlife here is…read moreamazing. I have watched a Osprey dive in and catch a fish. I have seen numerous Blue Heron and have gotten pictures of them catching fish. Eastern Blue Birds, vultures, and too many other birds to count. The Neuse River Greenway Trail starts here and you can walk up and down the trail from here. There is ample parking and you will see numerous people there ready to jog, hike or bike from the parking lot. You can park at the dam during the hours it is open and hike across the dam. The place is clean and there are bathrooms and a visitors center where members of the Army Corp of Engineers will happily answer any questions that you may have. Great place and it is all free.

Enjoyed finding and driving over Falls Lake Dam. It's a nice little area, with parking, a…read moreplayground, a fishing area, and even a family cemetery. I found a geocache there, to boot!