Why Blue Heron Whitewater
Why Blue Heron Whitewater
Blue Heron Whitewater is a professional rafting company with decades of experience. Our company is small, and our pool of experience is deep! It is our intention to provide the highest quality experience to you, our guest. The three founders of BHW had worked together with the Nantahala Outdoor Center, on the French Broad and Nolichucky Rivers since the early 1980's and 1990's, back when NOC was a majority employee-owned company. We appreciate our history with NOC, and experience gained while working there. We decided it was time to start something fresh, a new nimble company all our own. A professional rafting company that focuses on making your whitewater rafting trip on the French Broad River a fantastic experience. Our collective outdoor adventures, ranging from Ciro's six-month cross continent Africa adventure, to Fritz's familiarity of numerous western river canoe trips, to Sandy's years as a guide on West Virginia's New and Gauley Rivers speak for our attraction to outdoor adventures. It also speaks of our fondness of family whitewater rafting trips on the French Broad River, as we've each decided to make sharing it with you our livelihood.
So, what does this mean for you? 
We are a professional rafting company and when you call you will talk with someone who knows the river and the trips we offer first hand. When you arrive for your trip you will be greeted by someone who wants you to have the best trip possible. Your trip leader will help you decide which craft to paddle to meet your expectations. You might like to paddle in a raft with a fun-loving, experienced guide who coordinates your crew's efforts, or up the adventure level by paddling your own inflatable kayak, or captain your own raft-full of friends. Our familiarity with the river and knowledge of varying water levels will guide your boat options any given day, as the personality of the French Broad River changes.
We understand you want to have fun! As a profesional rafting company we will provide all the things you need for your family rafting trip on the French Broad River, from professional, experienced guides, to appropriate whitewater instruction, to river gear: PFDs, helmets, paddles, inflatable craft. If your whitewater rafting trip is a lunch trip you will enjoy a fresh deli-style lunch served riverside. We are happy to accommodate special dietary requests, just let us know when making your reservation.
Okay, imagine the trip is over, you are back in dry clothes, already thinking of when you can return for another great day on the French Broad River. Leave time to enjoy the photo show of your whitewater rafting trip. You might like to order the CD, so you can share the memories with friends and family, and get them to come back with you! Maybe you've exchanged addresses with new friends. You're back in the car, driving down the road when this strange feeling comes over you, like you are still on the river, rolling with the waves. Then you realize you're a little tired. A good tired, the tired that comes with the warm contentment and knowledge that you did something physical, and out of the norm, and you and your friends or family were successful. The lure of the river.