Kicking Horse River

Kick Your Fun Into Overdrive

Legend has it that the Kicking Horse River was named by a surveyor in the mid-19th Century after he was unceremoniously booted by his packhorse. Whatever the reason for the name, we can confidently say the river has been kicking paddlers into high gear since the 1970s when the first forays by raft and then kayak were made.

The Kicking Horse is also the site of Canada’s only regular heli-rafting experiences. It was borne of necessity when the Canadian Pacific Railway closed a crossing used by companies to access the lower river. “With the loss of road access to the famous Lower Canyon, we pioneered heli-rafting in 2016,” says Ryan Johannesen, owner of Glacier Rafting. “Now we combine amazing rafting and a helicopter flight to get there. There’s no experience like this anywhere else in the area.”

There are three main sections of the Kicking Horse River used for paddling. The upper canyon is a class III-IV whitewater run. The middle canyon is stiffer with class IV-V rapids and commercial rafting companies typically avoid this section due to the risks involved, but it is popular with experienced paddlers. The lower canyon offers mellower class III-IV rapids that dwindle in size as the river passes through the town of Golden and into the Columbia River.

Wapta Lake in Yoho National Park is the headwaters of the Kicking Horse River, which winds its way out of the alpine and past three waterfalls including the 30-metre-high, 150-metre-wide Wapta Falls, one of the largest in Canada in both width and volume. The water is a chalky, turquoise colour because it’s fed by the ice fields of the Rocky Mountains and is a beautiful contrast to the sienna-coloured cliffs and green trees. Once past the falls, the river then narrows into steep canyons that are the site of exhilarating whitewater, but it does open up in certain areas offering paddlers stunning views of the surrounding mountains, many of which are topped by snow year round.