Tubing down the Salt River

We had another first-time experience this year! Our friends Kelsie and Brad invited us to join them and some friends on a tubing trip down the Salt River here in Arizona.

We haven’t been tubing since we lived in Idaho Falls, and we went tubing in Lava Hot Springs. We were a little worried that the heat would be unbearable but it turned out to be a great day and the water was the perfect temperature to keep you cool.

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If you are interested here is the Salt River Tubing company’s website to give you all the info! They provide tube rentals and buses between stations to make the experience as easy as possible.

The river is flowing a little faster than normal so we decided to do the full length from 1 to 4 which ended up taking us about 3.5 hours, even faster than they were quoting. We almost started at stop 2 but I am happy we added that first section to make it feel like a full day of fun!

We had brought our own cooler intertube but rented the individual ones to float on. I am curious if a multi-person tube would be fun but it could be a pain to take everywhere. If you rent their tubes you get to pick them up and hand them off at the river so it’s less to carry.

Hot tip! (literally) bring sheets to cover the intertube so it doesn’t get too hot sitting in the sun.

One surprise was all of the dragonflies out. There were hundreds of them, all down the river!

If there was any bug that I had to deal with down a river I would take dragonflies any day over mosquitos, yay Arizona!

The only other animals around were the horses. We saw one standing at the beginning and then there were quite a few people riding horses and using the river for a water break.

There were some occasional low spots where everyone would yell “Butts up!” so you didn’t hit rocks.

Plus there were some minor rapids that we had to go through. Nothing too crazy but enough that if you aren’t prepared you may flip or hit your but on tall rocks.

Otherwise, it was quite calm and gentle!

The only other thing we had to watch out for, and it just made things entertaining is the river goes where it wants, and that includes pushing you into the trees, grass, and rocks on the sides of the river. Being prepared to push the group off is key!

Thankfully we all wore tons of sunscreen so there were some tans but no major burns or pain. Yay for being an adult! I remember going to Bear Lake growing up and just getting fried because we were to busy/cool for sunscreen. Now I better be white walking into that water because I am not dealing with a burn! 🤣

It turned out to be a great adventure and I can’t wait to go tubing again!