16 Miles of Continuous White Water (The Most Continuous White Water Rafting in New England)

Dead River Youth Group Price: $79
Season: May 9 - October 3
Meeting Location: 36 Main St • Route 201 • Bingham • Maine 04920
Meeting Time: Click here for meeting times and dates.
(We recommend checking in 30 minutes early.)
River Rating: Class 2-4+, Click here for river rating and dates.
River Type: Continuous Rapids, Technical to High Flows
Average River Flow: Click here for river flows and dates.
Range of River Flow: 2400-6500+ CFS
River Length: 16 Miles, 4.5 Hours on the River
Trips: Full River, Two Day Trip
High Adventure Sport Rafts Available: River Lunch: Steak, Chicken, Veggie Burgers, Salad, Desert, Beverages
Minimum Reservation Size: One Person
Minimum Age: 8 Years (Summer & Surfing Flow); 10 Years (High Water); 12 Years (Spring High Water)
Camping: Tent Camping, Platform Tents, RV Camping with Hookups
Lodging: Cabins
Restaurant: Patrick’s Restaurant, Game Room and Pub on Site
Reservations: Call Toll Free 800-345-6246

The Dead River is a 16-mile long, classic, remote Maine "gem". It's become a rafting river more recently than The Kennebec or The Penobscot River, because it previously had no regularly scheduled dam releases. Even today, it doesn't have "daily releases" like The Kennebec and Penobscot; because, the lake upstream of dam is too shallow. This is too bad, because the whitewater rafting on this river is nothing short of amazing.

With this in mind, if you want to river raft "The Dead" (and it's highly recommended), then you have only the release dates published for each year. Of these dates, there's really only 2 types of release; "moderate-to-high", and "moderate". Spring releases are almost always the highest. Summer is when you the moderate releases dominate.

You begin your Dead River whitewater rafting adventure by driving by bus into the Maine woods. During this bus drive on paper company roads, don't be surprised if you see a Moose, a Bear, a Deer, logging trucks, an Osprey or an Eagle. Except for all the "temporaries" (all the rafters and kayakers that is), this is a completely undeveloped portion of Maine - truly beautiful.

Once you get your raft, warm-up, and then head downstream, the rapids are fairly continuous (one after another), and they grow in difficulty as the day progresses. The rapids on The Dead River are rated Class III-IV+; shifting more to one rating or another based on the level. In contrast to the Kennebec, The Dead is a "pool-and-drop" river. This means that there are rapids and then breaks. However, some rapids are short and some are long. For example; one rapid is about a mile-long (called "Mile-Long"). Other notable rapids are "Spencer's Rips", "Humpty Dumpty", "Elephant Rock". "Little Poplars" and "Big Poplars". "Big Poplars" is near the end of the run and is the hardest rapid on the river - but maybe the most fun too

To learn more about our outstanding youth group and large group adventure vacation packages, look over our website, request a Maine Adventure Vacation Brochure, or speak to one of our friendly trip specialists at 1-800-345-6246 (toll free in the U.S. and in Canada). You can also contact us by email at: info@mainewhitewater.com!