RAFTING IN THREE RIVERS, CA
Experienced Guides for Serious Fun on the Water
Locally owned and operated since 1995, KWA has top-quality guides for top-quality whitewater.
WHY RAFT WITH US
Choosing KWA is choosing a company with the most experienced local guides. Most of our guides work and live in Three Rivers for the entire season. We’re a small family-run operation with a focus on safe, high-adventure trips. Our guides are particularly good with younger rafters on the lower section and feel privileged to introduce the next generation to a positive first whitewater experience.
OUR STORY
Brothers Mike and Scott Welch got into rafting as Boy Scouts. After achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, they continued to pursue their love of outdoor adventure through college with a degree in Recreational Leadership from Northern AZ University.
While working as seasonal ski resort employees, a friend suggested they might like whitewater guiding. They took a whitewater guide training course in Durango, CO, with Mild2Wild Rafting and started their career there on the Animas River in Durango in 2000. Twenty-three years later, they have rafted over 30 rivers in the US and abroad. They have also competed in many races over the years, including The Animal on the Gualey in WV and Gore Canyon in CO.
While on the Gauley River in West Virginia, Mike and Scott gave a hitchhiking rafter a ride from the takeout. They got to know the rafter named Frank Root, who owned a company out in California called Kaweah Whitewater Adventures in a little tourist town at the gateway of the Sequoia National Forest called Three Rivers. Little did they know that about 20 years later, they would be settled with their families in that same town of Three Rivers, CA, raising their river kids and running Kaweah Whitewater Adventures.
Family life and careers as wildlife biologists make for a busy life, but continuing the tradition of Kaweah Whitewater Adventures as a family-run business is a welcome privilege.
