The Naches River (near Yakima, Washington) provides for some fun rafting with subtly beautiful scenery: the cliffs here are formed from pentagonal interlocked basaltic columns that rise up to form fortress walls along this stretch of the river. The bird watching is very good, and the smooth treed hillsides make for interesting gazes between the frequent Class II and III rapids. The road that travels near the river is generally out of sight, so the entire length of the river has a secluded feeling that is punctuated only occasionally by a friendly hand wave from the owner of a house perched on the shoreline.
Steve and Brian grinning their opinion of the fun rafting on the Naches. The river’s rapids were interesting enough to keep us all attentive, with digging-deep paddle strokes and boulder avoidance maneuvers necessary from time to time, but it was also forgiving enough that we definitely didn’t need to be full-on river guides to get through it. The day before, we took Brian’s new raft for its maiden voyage on the nearby Yakima River. The Yakima is similarly pretty, though the stretch we took was all meandering flat water: great for practicing our raft-handling and very peaceful for even better bird watching than on the Naches.