Tuolumne River Trips

• Travel Details / Map
• 3-Day Trips
• 2-Day Trips
• 1-Day Trips

The Tuolumne river is simply California's finest wilderness whitewater rafting trip!  Located just outside Yosemite National Park, the Tuolumne river in 1984 was included in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system, evidence of its very special qualities. 

The Tuolumne (pronounced too-all-o-me) is a magical 18 mile corridor, boasting long, tantalizing class IV rapids, wondrous side creeks and wide, sandy beaches for camping. Unlike most of our other river trips, the Tuolumne river is not accessible by road during the entire trip. Thus, all necessary gear is taken with us on the rafts. Rapids such as Rams Head, Steamboat, Cabin, Hells Kitchen and the granddaddy of them all, Clavey Falls, will stir the blood of any rafter, veteran or novice.

We offer 1, 2, and 3-day trips. All trips cover the full 18 miles of river, but the more time spent in the canyon, the better. One-day trips are long days, with just enough time for a stop for lunch.  Our 2 and 3-day trips allow us time to enjoy two enchanting side creeks (we normally camp at both on the three day trip) where deep pool swimming holes are interconnected with natural granite jacuzzi pools. Overnight trips also let you test the extended culinary talents of our guides.  A summer evening under the stars in the Tuolumne river canyon is a lasting memory!

Zephyr Whitewater is the largest whitewater rafting outfitter on the Tuolumne river. We have more trip launch dates, and guide more people down the Tuolumne than any other California whitewater rafting outfitter.  See a list of our trip launch dates at the bottom of this page.

Note: 3-day trips are best after mid-June. 2-day trips are great anytime. And some trips are designated as 1-day trips only.  Please call our office for these 1-day only trip starts.

About Tuolumne Flows:
Thanks to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the folks that operate the Hetch Hetchy reservoir system, the Tuolumne river normally has excellent raftable water from April through early September. Guaranteed summer water insures that the Tuolumne river is the best wilderness class 4 rafting trip in California, and also one of the top trips in the entire U.S. And to insure trip quality on this National Wild and Scenic River, the U.S. Forest Service restricts commercial Tuolumne trip starts to just 2 per day!