Lower Big Sandy Rafting Trip

STATS: 6 Miles, 6Hrs
AGE: Recommended age is 16 years and up
TYPE: Extreme River Trip / natural flow
RIVER: Lower Big Sandy

Call the office to inquire

This is the most remote, most scenic and the most challenging whitewater in Northern West Virginia. The banks are choked with laurel, making scouting and portaging very difficult. Rafting the Big Sandy was pioneered by PRE. We do this trip in the 4 person rafts and all rafts are guided with safety boaters watching and helping along the way. You get a full day of wilderness rafting from start to finish. Just after going under the steel bridge at Rockville the river is class 2-3 for about 1 mile and then there are two big ledges just above Wonder Falls where the bottom drops out. We portage around Wonder Falls.

Below the falls there are several big rapids in a pool drop fashion. The first one is the Undercut Rock, about a six foot high river wide ledge. This is followed by Zoom flume which is about a 12' high sliding ledge with big holes at the bottom. Then comes Little Splat which is a long ledge/boulder rapid just two short drops above Big Splat, a must portage Falls. A swim here is not recommended. Below Big Splat the river changes to more of a continouos boulder run with some big rapids and ledges thrown in to keep you on your toes. For the next 3 miles the Big Sandy is nonstop action all the way to the take out. In this section the river drops around 80 ft per mile.this is great river bogey water spiced up with a few big drops to keep it real.

Depending on water levels and or abilities you can run all sections or break it up in to two different trips. You can keep track of water levels by checking the river gauges on our web site, look for the Rockville gauge reading to be around 5.5' - 7.0' for the best run.

IMPORTANT:  To raft one of the extreme trips you need to do an Upper Yough trip with us in the same season so you can check out how we operate and we can check you out to make sure your up to the challenge . This is for safety reasons as stated above you are in a wilderness environment and rescue can be difficult so we need to make sure that you are capable of this experience.

Lower Big Sandy River Photo Gallery