AVA Rafting & Zipline — Attraction in Idaho Springs

Our family had an incredible experience with AVA Rafting & Zipline.

Short version- We started our day with the zipline portion. Lots of fun / great views. Safety was never a concern and the crew (Emma, Jess, Cody and Trey) were amazing.

Rafting was a blast and our guide, Shawn, was awesome. He set us up for success early on and gave us great input on how to handle the journey safely. Shawn also did a great job answering any questions we threw at him as well as giving us a bunch of cool info about the area.

Long version-

----- ZIPLINING ----- After walking into the building we were greated and reminded of what the experience would be like as well as timing. We enjoyed some REALLY good free hot cocoa while we waited for the rest of the folks who would be going on the same trip with us.

There's a short bus ride to the ziplining area and then a pretty decent walk up a large hill (mountain?) for about 10 minutes or so. If you're not used to this altitude, you may want to acclimate to the area for a few days before embarking on your journey.

Our guides were professional but still very fun to talk to and interact with. They took their jobs and our safety very seriously but still cracked jokes with everyone.

We went at the end of August 2024 and it was around 95F. There were a few periods of having to wait for a few minutes in areas of little to no shade so be sure you're wearing sunblock before you go!

The views while ziplining were really amazing! Our favorite part was the dual zipline portion where you get to race. (I won)

After the ziplining, there was another short bus ride back to "camp" and we had about 30 - 45 minutes before we got prepped for rafting.

For rafting, there was an intro safety chat, then everyone was given individual attention to make sure they got the appropriate safety gear and that it was fitted properly.

We took another bus ride and were given another safety chat as well as some tour guide type info about the area. There were also some "Dad jokes" sprinkled in. After we arrived there was a brief window for a bathroom break (the bathroom at the drop off smelled HORRID and there was no way to clean your hands after. so go at one of the many bathrooms at the camp before leaving for rafting! This is not related to AVA, this is just an fyi)

People were assigned their guide and we were very fortunate to have been assigned Shawn Daws. I believe he was the most experienced with 10 or so years. I hope I'm remembering that right. Before getting into our raft, Shawn again went over safety info including how to sit on the raft and how to paddle. We set out and the tutorial continued including some real world tests to make sure we were ready for the rapids we would encounter on our journey.

It took us a little while but Shawn made sure to address any opportunities for improvement we had and from that point forward we were practically pros! We were able to work really well as a team under Shawn's expert guidance.

Along the way we asked got a lot of cool info about the area, the history, etc.

The end of August trip we experienced was great for us as we were first timers but that doesn't mean there wasn't danger or excitement. There was plenty of adrenaline flowing through our veins at many parts of the trip!

Once done we all boarded the bus back and there was more humor, history and even some food recommendations for those who had time to go into Buena Vista to get some chow afterward.

Overall it was an exceptional experience and we highly recommend it! AVA allows you to book with certain people and we highly recommend the crew that kept us safe and helped us to have an incredible visit: Emma, Jess, Cody,...

Safety concerns here. They want your money over making sure you're safe. I originally booked a trip on the Blue River Express, which said it was rated for 7 years and up. Not a problem since my group had two 8-year old kids. Two days before the trip, I looked on AVA's website to check river conditions and saw that the minimum age restriction was raised to 12 years old because of the fast flow of the river (lots of late spring rains). I called the next morning (which would be the day before my trip) and said that we could no longer go because the new age minimum counted out the kids in our group. I left a message then was called back (they left me a message this time) and the nice woman said that they were back to 7 year old minimum for the Blue River, but the woman sounded incredibly unsure and that "just so you know, it's going to be pretty intense and pretty bumpy...but umm....we're technically back to 7 years old and up." Not very reassuring. So I called and spoke to a man named Brett who tried to reassure me that the river conditions were fine for 7 year olds again and that the person who left a message for me was "misinformed." I said, "with all due respect, how do I know you're not just trying to keep me on the trip so you don't lose the money that's already been accounted for?" This is with their website still showing a 12-year old minimum by the way. He said that I could switch to a more chill route on the Colorado River that was only a short ways from the one that we had booked. I said ok, I'm more comfortable with that so let's make the switch. THEN THEY CHARGED ME A CANCELLATION FEE! I'm not cancelling - I'm switching trips because I'm not confident that you have my family's best safety interest here when there's clearly conflicting information, both from your people and your website. I just wanted to be done with it since it was the day before our trip, so I said it was fine...charge me whatever mental math you were jumping through to try and sort this out. But I knew I made the right choice in switching - the day of, two of their guides also told me that the Blue River wouldn't have been a good choice for my kiddos because it was running super fast and bumpy. I'm giving 2 stars because our guides were awesome - friendly and hilarious. Otherwise, don't book here if you're going with kids and looking at age minimums. They just...

Pros: Guides were great actually Cons: $50 parking ticket for parking in “overflow” as directed by the front desk. No mention of it being a paid lot and if you park in the spot closest to AVA, you are at the complete opposite end of the lot from the pay box. Also, a sign right by my car that says 12 hour parking and “overflow”. Others had this same issue and arrived back to parking tickets. Front desk could have cared less, suggested we take it up with the city and basically told us to screw off. Zero compassion when I just spent over $1,000 for a family of four after tips.

Having to purchase water shoes for my daughter due to missing the “no crocs” portion of the email only to find out there is a pile of free water shoes right beside the life jackets we could have used. The guides even pointed this pile out on the way to get suited up, we were unaware of this option when we arrived and it surely wasn’t told to us. We also asked about this afterwards, front desk could have cared less and told us he would make sure all the water shoes in the pile were thrown away so this didn’t happen again. Not only is that wasteful given shoes were one time use for many that are out of towners, add it to the landfill for no reason. This was a small expense but again after $1,000 bucks, it’s a bush league business practice

Our rafting trip was delayed over an hour due to traffic/construction even though we were there on time. Once we finally started way late, we hit the water at 1:55pm for our 12:15 rafting trip, our 1/3 day rafting trip only took about an hour and was 5.4 miles. Not sure if one hour is considered a 1/3 of a day or if we got the shorter faster version of what I paid for, no one would confirm that either. Given the rafting the delay, this obvs pushed back our pre booked ziplining as well. After a lot of sitting and waiting at AVA for a majority of the day, we finally got to dinner in Idaho Springs a little before 8pm.

I would check around before the major investment with AVA, they clearly know the majority of their clients are first-timer and not local so return business is not a concern. The shop acts like it. The guides were extremely nice and enjoyable, wish they worked for another company or a company that would have cared about my $67 concerns, would have lighten the issue with...