Shae and I discovered the joys of river tubing in the first year of our road trip when we went tubing on the Chippewa River in Wisconsin.
The following year we went tubing again on the Farmington River in Connecticut, one of the only good things about the state!
Despite enjoying both those experiences, we hadn’t gone tubing again – until just the other week. We’re staying in Denver right now and drove over to the nearby city of Golden to check out a museum and explore the area. While walking over a bridge, we spotted loads of people tubing down Clear Creek which runs through the city.
We were keen on going tubing ourselves, but there were a couple of problems with doing it that day. One – we didn’t have our swimsuits with us. Two – we had our dog Truffles with us. Shae and I therefore decided to head back to Golden a few days later sans Truffles.
A lot of the tubers we saw had tubes from Adventure West which has a few locations in Colorado, one of which is in Golden. They offer tube rental by the day rather than by the hour with single tubes costing $20 from Monday-Friday and $22 Saturday-Sunday. They also offer double tubes (i.e. tubes two people can ride together) for $40 from Monday-Friday and $44 Saturday-Sunday.
That’s pretty good pricing seeing as it covers you for the whole day (if you actually wanted to go tubing for that long), but we figured we could spend even less than that. Walmart sells Ozark Trail River Tubes (our affiliate link) for $4.94 and there was a nearby store which had some in stock.
We stopped by there on the way to Golden to grab a couple of tubes, along with a pump which cost ~$10. That meant our total outlay was $20 for the two of us. That’s just half of what we would’ve had to pay to rent tubes from Adventure West, but with the added benefit of getting to keep them for future use.
A couple of friends who live in Denver were also interested in going tubing, so they joined us in Golden. We met up with them near Golden History Museum and walked up Clear Creek Trail to find somewhere to put in. There seemed to be various points where you can put in on Clear Creek; we didn’t go as far up as some people, but I think this was the general area we put in.
Clear Creek in Golden is a really fun place to go tubing as the creek flows at a decent speed and there are some rapids along the way that make it more exciting. All four of us got tipped out of our tubes at some point, so be prepared to potentially end up in the water!
There are a few areas along the creek that are great picnic spots, as well as being potential places to get out if you want.
If you keep going, there’s a final take out spot where you have to get out of Clear Creek. There’s a sign letting you know where this is; it’s just after a bridge running over the creek (Ford St) with Vanover Park on the left.
The water is much more shallow at this section and the current isn’t very strong, so it’s easy enough to stand up in the creek and walk to the park. If your arms are long/strong enough, you can also paddle over to the park. It took about 10 minutes to tube from our put in point and about 10-15 minutes to walk back there from Vanover Park.
We went tubing down Clear Creek a few times before calling it a day and heading to Golden City Brewery for some lunch and a drink. It was a lot of fun and something we’d highly recommend doing if you’re ever in the Denver area.
To give you an even better idea of what the experience was like, here’s a video I took from put in to take out.
How far up can you put in? Want to have a longer ride if possible. Coming in from out of town.
I’m not too sure I’m afraid as we put in at the same place each time. You can definitely go farther up the creek to put in though as we saw other people tubing down from there.
Where exactly did you put in? Thank you!
There’s a link in the post for Google Maps that shows where we put in as bet as I can tell.