Swiftwater Adventures Closes Due To Flood Levels Causing Dangerous Conditions, Now Reopen

CARLTON, Minn. — A whitewater rafting business on the St. Louis River was forced to close for a few days due to high flooding levels causing dangerous conditions.

Swiftwater Adventures owner and operator says last week’s rain caught up to them on Sunday. Water levels passed the company’s safe thresholds for rafting. The water was close to 25,000 cubic feet per second, which is how water is measured in the river. A safe CFS for them is under 20,000.

The owner says the flood levels have to drop for them to reopen.

“When the river gets this high like a lot of the first half of the trip, the rapids are just washed out. And then the last two are massive. And there’s just a couple dangers on those last two rapids that these crazy high flows that it’s as they say, ‘the juice just isn’t worth the squeeze.’ I mean the chance of like, we got great guides, super experienced kayakers and all that. That you know they can go and do that on their own for fun but like running a commercial trip with those extra dangers. It’s just too risky,” said Cliff Langley, Owner & Operator of Swiftwater Adventures.

Swiftwater Adventures was able to reopen on Wednesday.