Adventures of a Life time

I took my husband and our three children ages 17, 13, and 12 and we had the experience of a lifetime. Parker was our guide and he was knowledgeable and professional, and has the best personality for what he’s doing. We booked the Browns Canyon Sizzler and we could not have been happier with our choice. We embarked on our adventure around 9am and were back at the outpost mid afternoon. Halfway through our float we stopped and had delicious fajitas prepared right there by the river by the guides. I’m so glad I decided to go with this company, we were not disappointed one bit. We definitely have AVA in mind the next time we come to Colorado, maybe I’ll try some zip-lining next time. Thanks for the awesome adventure!

Did this 14 years ago and it was awesome. This time Unbelievable ! It is all about the guide. We probably sucked at paddling, but “stoke” made us feel we were great, had a good team, and rewarded us with attacking the challenge with fun. Worth every strike and amazing life experience. Thanks Stoke!

We did the rafting in the morning with Chad and Garrett and the via ferrata with Ella and Cody! It was a fabulous day of high adventure. All the guides were so experienced and safe. You could tell the attention to detail the company puts into their experiences, everything was so well thought out. I greatly appreciated the encouragement and support they gave for the scarier more adrenaline enduring portions of the via ferrata, I couldn't have done it without Ella! 5 stars all around! We will be sending people your way :)

Browns Canyon is beautiful and the rafting is great for families, but please choose any other outfitter besides AVA. Our party of 12 experienced an organizational clownshow yesterday, and an indifferent admin that seemed unable or unwilling to make it better when their mistakes kept piling on. Our summer sizzler trip started with the van not having functional seat belts. After a few miles in the van, we RAN OUT OF GAS. We waited about 15 minutes by the side of a busy highway in the hot sun (in wet suits and PFDs!) while the hapless guides tried to run up the road until they could get a cell signal. When the rescue van came, we couldn't use it because it had BAD BRAKES. The 3rd van that came worked, but it also lacked seat belts.
[ These same crappy vans are also used by Peak 1 Transportation in the winter to Breckenridge, so avoid them too. ] If this is a company that puts "safety first," as I was told, nobody mentioned that to their van mechanics.
We were excited about the planned riverside hot lunch of grilled fajitas. After we pulled out at Hecla junction, the guides started to make lunch...and then stopped. I heard a few reasons why, but the story kept changing. We ended up not getting lunch until back at the office at 3 pm. Even with our late arrival, they still didn't have our trip pictures ready.
They didn't meet us with food or apologies. They didn't seem too concerned about the cascading series of logistical fiascos, even though the office staff knew all about it and pledged to help when I asked to speak with a manager. They weren't authorized to do any refunds, and the back office guy who could didn't call me back for over 24 hours and then made only very weak attempts to make things right.
I'm giving 2 stars instead of one because the guides were good, the river and rapids were beautiful, and we saw some great wildlife, but you should choose any of the dozens of other outfitters running this river.

My husband and I booked an overnight rafting trip with AVA months prior to our trip to Colorado. We had low expectations going into the trip, but left absolutely amazed. Our raft guide Anika was the most personable, smart, young lady. She made sure we were comfortable before ever taking off. She made sure we had everything we needed the entire time. She was extremely knowledgeable about the river and everything Colorado related. After an easy first day on the river we got to our camp site where she proceeded to set up camp and cook us dinner(chicken fajitas which were amazing!!! And tons of fruit). This brings me to Jill who was an absolute badass. We were privileged enough to be a part of her first solo gear boat trip and she killed it!! Being able to see her ahead of us on the river all by herself with a loaded down boat and just handling anything the river threw her way. The excitement on her face was incredible to watch as a spectator and honestly made the trip so much more worth it. After a night of sleeping under the stars, we had coffee, we were cooked a breakfast that consisted of eggs, sausage, potatoes, and avocado (which was a great treat in the woods). We then went on a group hike before heading back out on the river for a day of rapids. Again being able to watch Jill traverse the rapids alone was incredible while Anika asked us each step of the way how “spicy” we wanted our route to go. We all wanted it to be exciting so we choose the biggest waves for us to go down that left us soaked. Overall, this was an incredible experience, mostly because of who our guides were (Anika and Jill). But I do have to give a special shoutout to Blake who was our driver both too and from our trip. He was personable, always upbeat, and made sure we had what we needed. 10/10 would definitely recommend to anyone and everyone to book this trip. It’s 100% worth the money for the experience you will get.