How to Float the Truckee River

The Truckee River from Tahoe City to River Ranch restaurant is a pretty mellow (and beautiful) stretch of water. There are a few rapids, but they likely wouldn't even classify as a class 1 rapid (the easiest rating for rapids). Most people float this stretch of river without a guide or any whitewater experience. The float takes approximately 3 hours.

Tahoe City Kayak's retail store sells inexpensive tubes and rafts, ranging from $20 to $65 in price. We can inflate these retail tubes at our shop (for an added fee), or you can blow them up at the inflation station at the Chevron gas station across the street from the river put-in. While we have a large fleet of rental kayaks and paddleboards at our waterfront rental location at Commons Beach, we discourage our rental customers from taking our lake-oriented rentals on the river, as these kayaks are not designed for river use.

Parking for the Put In: Tahoe City has a large, free, public parking area with a small boat ramp into the river. The parking area is called "64 Acres" and it's located just behind the Tahoe City Transit Center at 180 West Lake Blvd in Tahoe City. You'll pull into the entrance for the Transit Center, and keep driving straight past the bus stop building, and the driveway/road will take you to this large parking lot and boat ramp.

Getting Back to your car: It will be quite obvious when you reach River Ranch Restaurant and Lodge, as there is a large dock and a restaurant deck out over the water. There's a marked public pull-out area where you can take your tube or inflatable kayak back up to the parking area. Getting back to your vehicle at 64 Acres, where you started your river journey, can be done a few different ways:

If you have two vehicles available, you can leave one of these vehicles in the public parking area near the River Ranch docks before you begin your river float. If you're driving away from Tahoe City, toward River Ranch, you'll see a left turn into a gravel driveway about 100 yards (meters) before the parking lot for River Ranch. This is a free public parking area where you can leave your vehicle while you float.

If you don't have a second car, but you have a bike and a bike lock, you can lock your bike to a bike rack at River Ranch or a tree in the public parking area described above. There is a bike path that follows the Truckee River that can take you right back to where you started. One person can ride back to get the car and return to retrieve the rest of your party , and your river tubes.

The TART (Tahoe Area Rapid Transit) has buses that stop by the River Ranch once per hour. They also have a shuttle van service called "TART Connect," which allows you to schedule a pickup using their App. You can download the app at TART Connect – TART. During busy vacation periods, the TART service can be very popular/busy, so be patient.

Uber is available in Tahoe, although wait times can be a fair bit longer than you may have experienced in cities. We recommend our river tubes, not our inflatable kayaks, when using this service (due to carry on size when deflated).

Buying our river tubes is a great, and less expensive, way to float the Truckee. That said, if you'd like a full service experience that includes a large commercial raft and bus transportation, there are two Truckee River Rafting companies that offer a full livery service (at a higher price). If you want the thrill of Class 3 whitewater on a rowdier section of the Truckee River, call Tahoe Whitewater Adventures for a fully guided whitewater experience on a steeper/faster section of river closer to the town of Truckee.