Please consider the differences between what we offer at Orion River Expeditions and your other adventure travel options:

• Comprehensive Staff Training:

  We select our guides carefully, preferring that they attend our intensive and comprehensive spring training program, rather than hiring them through other outfitter's recommendations or through 'credentials' from out-of-state.
  
  Why?
  
  Because we are looking for guides who understand our philosophy, and because we want to get to know our employees as people, not merely guides. We work hard at building a community at Orion, thereby creating an environment that doesn't always feel like work. We believe it's the key to our long-running success.
  
  What this means to you is that you can be assured that the guide at the helm of your raft understands that safety is, at all times, of paramount importance. Your safety comes first. Our guides think safety first and whitewater pleasure a close second.

• Focus, Mission, Founders:

  Orion River Expeditions began 33 years ago as an internship for a recreation program. Our founders focus and mission was to bring people together and few activities are better suited to that purpose than river rafting. Orion continues to be led by the original owner and his wife who remain actively involved in every aspect of the company.

• Depth of Whitewater Guiding Experience:

  Orion’s guides have an average of eight years of river-guiding experience. Many have extensive wilderness medical training and all have completed Orion’s comprehensive guide training and river rescue course. Our guides come from all walks of life: teachers, lawyers, physical therapists, police officers, forestry students, internet technologists --- the list goes on and on. Many of our guides have been with us for years, if not decades.

• High Guide-to-Guest Ratio:

  We do not pack our guests into our rafts like sardines in a can for a very important reason: it adds stress to the guide’s day and makes your trip less safe. Your guide needs room to maneuver and paddle, and so do you. Our day paddle rafting trips are usually 6 guests to one guide.

• Top-of-the-Line River Equipment:

  We only use self-bailing rafts with foot cups added for safety. Our paddles are unbreakable and are life jackets are Coast Guard and whitewater approved.

• Environmental Integrity:

  Orion River Expeditions has always taken environmental stewardship seriously. We are active supporters of conservation groups like the Cascade Land Trust and the Sierra Club, and we go the extra mile on every river trip to Leave No Trace --- “take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints”.