Water Rafting, Gardiner, Montana, USA
23 years ago, Wild West started out with a ’72 Dodge Van, a raft, a trailer and a dream. Mike Barlow, our esteemed owner and mentor, had his first guiding experience on the Snake River in Jackson Hole, Wyoming during the mid 1980’s. Upon moving to Gardiner as a professional wildlife photographer, he decided to start his river rafting venture.
Since then, Wild West Rafting has seen immeasurable growth and development. We have become the top rafting company in Gardiner solely through our work ethic, a “let’s just have fun” mentality and Mike & Tracy Barlow.
At Wild West, we like to implement 3-4 weeks of intense training for our raft guides. This ensures that A.) they are competent enough to safely take a boat of customers down the river and B.) they know how to have a good time while doing it.
During training, the guides take ‘laps’ on the river. This consists primarily of rafting the same section of rapids over and over until they can guide the river blindfolded with one hand and half of their cognitive brain function tied behind their back! They practice mercilessly flipping boats, running up hills, swimming the icy waters and a myriad of other safety measures should things go wrong.
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