Talkeetna River Guides - Day Trips
Talkeetna River Guides - Day Trips
4.5
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Monday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Tuesday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Wednesday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Thursday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Friday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Saturday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Sunday
8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Full view
About
Whether you are an experienced adventurer or a family traveling with children, TRG‘s scenic float trips fit a broad spectrum of tastes. Few places in the world rival the scenic beauty of Mt. McKinley (known locally as Denali, or “the Great One” in the Tanana Athabascan dialect) and the glacier-fed river valleys of the southern slopes of the Alaska Range. Located just 120 road miles northeast of Anchorage, the quaint, historic town of Talkeetna sits near the confluence of three mighty rivers, the Susitna, the Chulitna, and the Talkeetna. TRG operates out of a yurt office on Main Street. Other activities in the area include hiking in Denali State Park, flightseeing amidst the spectacular peaks of the Alaska Range, and remote wilderness exploration in the unspoiled reaches of Denali National Park and the nearby Talkeetna Mountains — just to name a few. We offer 2-hour Talkeetna River and 4-hour Chulitna River Trips. As well as custom and overnight trips, just call or email us for more information. We provide rain gear and boots so you can enjoy your trip rain or shine.
Talkeetna, Alaska
Awards
Travelers' Choice
2024
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Talkeetna River Guides - Day Trips
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
Popular mentions
4.5
374 reviews
Excellent
278
Very good
67
Average
20
Poor
5
Terrible
4
Craig A
Wisconsin325 contributions
Jun 2022
My family of four ended our 10-day Alaskan vacation with a 2-hour float. I would have given it a 5 had we seen any of the wildlife one would hope to see in Alaska (Moose, bear, eagles). It's no fault of the TRG that we didn't see wildlife. The weather has been unusually warm and dry, there was decent smoke in the air due to wildfires in the region, and time of year maters too. With that out of the way, what a great experience. Our guide, Tristan, was a young man, just out of high school. Very professional and knowledgeable about the river and area. He was talkative and interacting with the boat the entire time we were on river. The entire staff from the time we entered was truly wonderful and very friendly. June is supposed to be a very buggy time of year. For the most part, they were not an issue other than when we were at the put-in. Overall, a very good experience that was worth the time and money to do.
Written July 6, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Craig,
Thanks so much for your review. We know that Talkeetna has many great options for things to do while visiting and when someone chooses to spend a few hours of their Alaska vacation with us we are so grateful! We really appreciate your kinds words and supporting our local family owned business. I will be sure to pass on to Tristan your kind words too! We are so fortunate to have such an amazing staff of locals working to share their stories of growing up in Talkeetna!
With Gratitude,
Ashley Kaso
Written July 6, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Namnomz
10 contributions
Jun 2021
This was a relaxing float experience for us. The staff are extremely friendly, flexible, and professional. The pick up and drop off was very easy and we felt very safe in the raft. We weren't initially planning on going rafting, but our flightseeing tour was cancelled and we wanted to spend our day in the wild. This was a great alternative to get out on the river. There are some spots where the views of Denali and the Alaskan Range would have been great, but there were a lot of clouds on our trip. What we enjoyed most were the bird nests, beaver lodges, and moose tracks. Our only negative feedback would be did want to learn more about the wildlife and the area from the guide because it was our first trip to Talkeetna and Alaska in general. We ended up talking about other topics more broadly. Having said that, appreciated her talking to make the bears aware of where we were!
Written June 29, 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you so very much for your kind words and thoughtful review! We really appreciate you spending a day with us and supporting locally owned and operated businesses! We hope your enjoyed the rest of your vacation!
Sincerely,
Team T.R.G.
Written July 2, 2021
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
ronnaldpopp
Springdale, UT24 contributions
Jul 2023 • Couples
My wife and I experienced a glorious sunshine day with beautiful views of Denali. Like all float rafting trips a lot depends on your guide and the other folks in your raft. The others were fun and inquisitive. But Kiki our guide was absolutely the best!!! She was a very open, warm, knowledgeable, and genuine person! My wife and I never felt like this was just a job for her. And so worked so hard! She literally rowed the entire 4 hours while sharing her vast knowledge of Alaska (born and raised in a small city west of Fairbanks). We appreciate her very down to earth attitude about enjoying life and Alaska! Highly recommend this guided rafting tour!
Written July 31, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you so much for your great and detailed review! We really appreciate you spending time with us on the river and supporting our locally owned Talkeetna business. We will be sure to pass on your kind words to Kiki as well.
With Gratitude,
Ashley B. Kaso
Written August 9, 2023
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Karen J
Colorado Springs, CO352 contributions
Jun 2022
I really enjoyed the float tour, even though we didn't see any significant wildlife (seagulls don't count according to my husband). My hubby and I were split up between the front and back of the boat, but the ladies I sat next to were also teachers and we had fun talking.
The rubber overboots were hard to walk in, but since a few folks jumped the gun and got out of the float early, it protected their shoes. The safety overview was fun ... and they took my snarky comments well. Getting in/out of the float was actually not bad!
Our guide was fun and informative. He talked to us about the how/why of steering the raft. We talked about plants. We battled the other float (NOTE: This was really one smack of the oars with silly trash talk, but that was great to watch.) We got to see Denali. I'm pretty sure that I got 5-drops of water wet in front and my hubby got one splash in the back.
I hatched multiple eggs using AT&T and letting the app run while floating down the river. Afterwards, the tour guides talked to me about Pokemon Go! We left a bunch of regionals in the Pokemon Go gyms for folks that might not have them in their Pokedexes.
We chose to walk back, which was great! We stopped by many cute shops, including Silverbear Sundries for some Devil's Club balm for my many mosquito bites, Village Arts & Crafts for some art, and Shirley's Homemade Ice Cream for some Northern Lights ice cream!
Honestly, after the jet boat experience yesterday, I almost cancelled our float tour today and that would have been bad. I can't think of anything that would top our Kenai float tour, but that's because a moose heading straight for the raft behind you will probably never happen again. (The Kenai huge stuffed bear sitting in a chair as we left was a cute touch.)
The rubber overboots were hard to walk in, but since a few folks jumped the gun and got out of the float early, it protected their shoes. The safety overview was fun ... and they took my snarky comments well. Getting in/out of the float was actually not bad!
Our guide was fun and informative. He talked to us about the how/why of steering the raft. We talked about plants. We battled the other float (NOTE: This was really one smack of the oars with silly trash talk, but that was great to watch.) We got to see Denali. I'm pretty sure that I got 5-drops of water wet in front and my hubby got one splash in the back.
I hatched multiple eggs using AT&T and letting the app run while floating down the river. Afterwards, the tour guides talked to me about Pokemon Go! We left a bunch of regionals in the Pokemon Go gyms for folks that might not have them in their Pokedexes.
We chose to walk back, which was great! We stopped by many cute shops, including Silverbear Sundries for some Devil's Club balm for my many mosquito bites, Village Arts & Crafts for some art, and Shirley's Homemade Ice Cream for some Northern Lights ice cream!
Honestly, after the jet boat experience yesterday, I almost cancelled our float tour today and that would have been bad. I can't think of anything that would top our Kenai float tour, but that's because a moose heading straight for the raft behind you will probably never happen again. (The Kenai huge stuffed bear sitting in a chair as we left was a cute touch.)
Written June 7, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you so much for the great review! We know that you have many great options while in Talkeetna and we are so grateful that you chose to spend part of your day with us! Thanks for supporting our family owned business!
With Gratitude,
Ashley Kaso
Written June 15, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Donna S
4 contributions
Jun 2022 • Couples
We had an overcast and cooler start but was as the day turned warmer it was amazing! Very relaxing and surprisingly calm even though the water was fast. Scott was very knowledgeable and interesting too. He gave us a great ride! Except for the mosquitoes population was exploding we highly recommend taking this raft float tour!!
Written June 14, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thank you so very much for the great review! We really appreciate you spending a few hours of your day with us and supporting our locally owned family business. We hope you enjoyed the rest of your time in Talkeetna and Alaska.
With Gratitude,
Team T.R.G.
Written June 15, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Nancy S
Round Hill, VA134 contributions
Aug 2022
There were 4 of us that took the train up from Anchorage to Talkeetna (and back later, same day). We started our time in Talkeetna having lunch and souvenir shopping. We headed to Talkeetna River Guides and from our first interaction with them, to our last - it was excellent. Chris took us from the yert/office to the takeout where we met our guide, Kai. Kai treated us to an amazing almost 2-hourt float trip on the Talkeetna. You can tell he lover his job (love what you do, do what you love) and his stories were so entertaining. The trip itself was beautiful with mountains, side streams, etc. Highly recommend this outfitter. We were a little worried about making the 4:55pm train back to Anchorage, but it wasn't an issue. Our raft guide knew our time limitation and the company took us by shuttle from their office to the train station to ensure we made the train. Nice!
Written August 23, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Nancy,
Thanks so very much for the great and detailed review! We have a saying at T.R.G. that "we love where we live and love what we do" and it's always our greatest hope that guests can feel that energy! We will be sure to pass on to Kai your kind words and hope that if/when you find your way back to Talkeetna that you pop in to say hi or join us again on the river! We appreciate you taking the time to send a review and supporting our family business.
With Gratitude,
Ashley Kaso
Written August 30, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Michael A
4 contributions
Jul 2022 • Couples
Fantastic staff got us suited up for inclement weather and we were out on the river in no time. Our guide, Violette, was very knowledgeable about the river flora and fauna, and pointed out bald eagles, a golden eagle, and currants along the bank (which we floated over to eat off the bushes). The 2-hour trip was very easy and relaxing, and totally appropriate for people of all ages and abilities. Just a great float with beautiful views on the Talkeetna and Susitna Rivers.
Written July 24, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hello,
Thanks for your kind words and great review! We know that there are many options of things to do while in Talkeetna and we never take it for granted when guests choose to spend time with us out on the river! We will be sure to pass on to Violette your review! Thank you again!
With Gratitude,
Ashley Kaso
Written August 30, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Davin R
Fairbanks, AK75 contributions
Jul 2020
Fantastic trip. They were very prepared for the current pandemic situation and had taken great care to make sure the trip was safe and enjoyable. Highly recommended! Even as a local Alaskan, i really enjoyed the scenic float and we saw a bald eagle eating a salmon! A highlight of our time in Talkeetna
Written July 7, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Hi Davin,
Thank you so much for the great review! We are so happy you and your mom enjoyed the trip and felt safe with all our implemented Covid safety protocols! We hope to have you visit again. With Gratitude, Ashley
Written August 21, 2020
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
Bruce C
Bethlehem, NH742 contributions
Aug 2020
Had a great experience taking the river raft. They were extremely careful given COVID - I had no worries and they were incredibly respectful the whole time. That said, the rafting was a great experience - we really enjoyed it. Lots of good sights, lots of good insights from the guide - who was great. The outfit was exceptional and would highly recommend it.
Written August 11, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Ed F
35 contributions
Aug 2022 • Family
Friendly guides, relaxing, beautiful, and wonderful staff. Did a 2 hour float trip, and were able to bring someone in our party that has some mobility issues. It was great to be able to share the experience of being low on the water, quietly floating down the river, learning about the locals, wildlife, topography and nature. Great way to spend a few hours in the town.
Written August 5, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Thanks so much for spending a few hours with us on the Talkeetna river! It's always our hope and measure of success that our guests can feel how much we love where we live and love what we do! Thank you for supporting our local family owned business and hope you stop by to say hello if you're ever back in Talkeetna!
Sincerely,
Ashley Kaso
Written August 30, 2022
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of Tripadvisor LLC.
A cookie from the local Flying Squirrel Bakery is provided!
Written August 17, 2017
The river was not very fast so if a person kept their equipment inside the craft it should be ok. We had no problem
Written July 13, 2017
Do the seats on the rafts have backs? I'm concerned that after several hours sitting on the raft that my back will really be hurting. Also, we're considering bringing along our mother, who is 83 years old.
Written April 1, 2016
No. You are sitting on the side of the boat or rubber seat
Written June 1, 2016
We will be in Talkeetna on July 31, August 1 we would like a river trip, there are 7 adults and 2 kids ages 9 & 11. Can you accommodate us either of those days, what are the times, and is there a time better percentage wise to see wildlife?
Thank you
Carol sporar
Written January 30, 2016
Carol, we took Talkeetna River Guides rafting trip last year about the same time in August. We had 7 adults and an 8 yr. old. The entire trip from pickup at hotel to the end was about 5 hours. It was our favorite excursion in Alaska. We saw lots of eagles and jumping salmon...no bears but they had seen them the week before. Our guide was Scott...very experienced and knowledgable. We booked through our cruise line but they have website with toll free number for questions. Enjoy! Julie H.
Written February 1, 2016
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