If you are looking for the perfect SoCal summer getaway with your family this year, look no further than the Lower Kern River, just a few hours outside of Los Angeles. The Lower Kern is one of the three west coast rivers that I recommend for families, but don’t just take my word for it – the Kern is on just about everybody’s list of top rafting rivers.
Save money by cooking your own food (photo by ClintJCL)
One of the attractions of camping is that it’s generally cheaper than other types of family vacations, when you take into account rooms and meals. Camping is a great way to get the family together and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money.
We can rebuild it (photo by Tim Eschaton)
It happens to the best of us. No matter how well you prepare, or how many checklists you use, it is inevitable that someday you will show up in the backcountry only to discover that you forgot to pack something important. It might be as simple as a can opener or maybe the fuel for your camp stove, but it’s important to stay calm and not let the situation ruin your weekend.
Rugged terrain and unreliable communication can lead to longer emergency response times in the backcountry (photo by Kinder Alan on Flickr.com)
In August of 2008, rescue crews evacuated hundreds of campers from the Grand Canyon floor as flash flooding breached the nearby Redlands Dam, south of Supai. In March, a man camping in New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains fell 80 feet, while hiking with friends. In the Fall of 2007, more than a dozen campers were rescued from a runaway brushfire on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Camping emergencies are not usually so extreme, but anytime we venture into the backcountry we need to realize that we are now largely on our own. Emergency response times in the backcountry can be much longer, because smaller emergency crews are responsible for much larger areas than their city counterparts are.
Whitewater rafting is a great family adventure (click for larger image)
Sure, the economy is in a funk, but that does not mean you have to settle on a family camping vacation that is anything other than extraordinary. The West offers some of the finest rafting rivers in the world and many of them are perfectly suited for all ages and abilities.
I picked three of the most popular runs, whose locations in Southern California, Southern Oregon, and Eastern Idaho, are easily reachable from most of the West without spending a large amount of your vacation dollars on travel expenses.