Kayaking with Kids on the Colorado River near Glenwood Springs

How did I spend my 11th wedding anniversary last Saturday? With my sweet husband and two children kayaking on the Colorado River not far from our home! It was an afternoon during which I was reminded how lucky I am to be married to an adventurous sort who has the wherewithal to purchase inflatable kayaks for our family. Yep, we’re the proud owners of two, tw0-seater, blow-up Tomcat kayaks, also known as “duckies.” I couldn’t believe it when my husband brought them home four years ago — and never dreamed we’d be able to take our then four-year-old and six-year-old on the river. But we did that summer, and we have every summer since.

We typically wait until well after the river has come down a bit after the spring snowmelt. In June, the rapids are typically way too raucous and the water is rushing way too fast for me to be comfortable in it with my kids. But by mid-July, the river is much mellower, especially where we like to kayak with the our children between Grizzly Creek rest area just off of I-70 and Two Rivers Park, a stretch of river that starts in scenic Glenwood Canyon and ends past the world-famous Glenwood Hot Springs.

For this trip, my daughter started out in the front seat of my kayak, and my son was in the other one with my husband. Both kids were armed with squirt guns and buckets for water fights; indeed we all got pretty wet, even when I asked (nicely) not to be drenched. We absolutely hit some waves, and I deftly negotiated around rocks (okay, maybe in slight panic), but most of the river was quiet, and the kids could hop out of the kayaks and swim a bit and hang out in the natural hot springs on the riverbank.

Here are some photos from our great day:

The weather was perfect: sunny and warm.

My daughter actually prefers kayaking with Daddy since he is a bit more adventurous in big waves. However, I'll do.

The kids like climbing between the kayaks.

This is a cool new zipline across the river at Glenwood Canyon Resort. Try the high ropes course here, too.

We got lucky on this trip: the natural hot springs at the side of the river weren't occupied, so we made ourselves at home!

The water running into the hot pools is about 200 degrees; it's cooled by the river water.

This is the life!

Kayaking with kids on the Colorado River isn’t necessarily an easy excursion. We have to drive two cars from our home and leave one at our pull-out spot, then drive to the put-in with our kayaks. I mean, it’s not that epic, but it does require some time. All told, our excursion on Saturday was about four hours long — with close to two hours on the river (including a long time spent in the hot springs).

If you’d like to sample “ducky” kayaking yourself, several Colorado rafting outfitters offer this option as an alternative to taking a group rafting trip. In the Glenwood Springs area, consider renting from Rock Gardens Rafting (the same company that owns the cool zipline pictured above) or Blue Sky Rafting.