LANDMARKS OF LEGACY
Fifty Years on the Snake River – In the Year America Turns 250
In 1976, the year America celebrated its bicentennial, a river outfitter began guiding guests down the Snake River through the canyon south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In 2026, as the country marks 250 years, Mad River Boat Trips celebrates its own milestone: 50 seasons on one of the most iconic wild rivers in the American West. Two anniversaries. One extraordinary place. As Aramark Destinations marks this dual celebration, we invite you to float the river that has defined the Jackson Hole experience for half a century through a canyon carved by forces far older than either milestone, beneath mountains that were ancient when the nation was born.
Mad River Boat Trips operates as a permittee of the Bridger-Teton National Forest and Teton County Parks and Recreation, offering whitewater rafting trips and scenic floats daily during the summer season. For 50 years, generations of families, first-time visitors, and returning adventurers have trusted Mad River to introduce them to the Snake River. In 2026, we’re celebrating that legacy and welcoming the next 50 years.
The Snake River Canyon: A Wild and Scenic Corridor Through the Heart of the West
The Snake River rises in Yellowstone country and runs more than 1,000 miles to the Columbia, one of the great river systems of the American West, draining a watershed that covers much of the northern Rocky Mountain interior. In Jackson Hole, it braids through the valley floor beneath the Teton Range, offering one of the most photographed river views in North America: the winding silver ribbon of water with the jagged peaks rising behind it. South of Jackson, the river changes character entirely, dropping into the Snake River Canyon, a basalt gorge where the current quickens, the canyon walls rise, and the mountains disappear behind the rimrock. This is Mad River’s water: eight miles of Class III whitewater through a federally designated Wild and Scenic River corridor, flanked by cottonwood and willow, home to bald eagles, osprey, otters, and the occasional moose standing in the shallows.
The river is designated Wild and Scenic under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, a federal protection that recognizes the Snake River Canyon as a landscape of extraordinary natural value, to be kept free-flowing and protected from development in perpetuity. Mad River has operated within that designation for 50 years, guided by a commitment to the river’s health that is inseparable from its commitment to the guests who come to run it.
Experience History in New Ways (boilerplate)
- Guided interpretive tours and legacy experiences
- Special events and commemorative celebrations
- Property-specific stories and milestone moments
- Culinary and retail offerings inspired by local destinations
- Immersive content revealing the past, present, and future of each place
Our Promise to These Places, and to You
Landmarks of Legacy connects our destinations through three shared commitments.
Stewardship
Caring for What Endures: Operating on a federally designated Wild and Scenic River is a privilege that comes with responsibility. Fifty years of river stewardship at Mad River means Leave No Trace principles applied to every launch, every float, and every take-out; careful management of foot traffic on sensitive riparian habitat; and a genuine investment in the long-term health of the Snake River ecosystem that sustains the canyon’s wildlife and keeps its water clear. The river is not a backdrop for the experience. It is the experience – and protecting it is the foundation of everything Mad River does.
Stories that Shape Our Destinations
Every Landmark Has a Voice: The Snake River Canyon is a geological record written in basalt flows and glacial outwash, a landscape shaped by volcanic activity, catastrophic ice-age floods, and the slow work of the river itself over millions of years. The Shoshone and Bannock peoples traveled and fished these waters long before the first Euro-American explorers named the river, and their relationship with the Snake River corridor continues today. The canyon’s designation as a Wild and Scenic River in 1972 added a more recent layer: a story of conservation fought for and won, of a river corridor that could have been dammed or developed and was protected instead. Mad River’s guides know all of it – the geology, the ecology, the human history – and they share it between rapids, at the pace the river sets.
Experiences of Legacy.
Not Spectators. Participants. The Snake River Canyon does not permit passivity. Whether guests are paddling through the whitewater of the canyon in a small boat or drifting the valley float with Teton views stretching to the horizon, the river puts them inside the landscape rather than in front of it. Bald eagles in the cottonwoods, osprey hunting the current, otters rolling in the shallows, the sound of the next rapid building around the bend – these are not curated encounters. They are what happens when you spend 3.5 hours on a wild river with a guide who loves it. For 50 years, Mad River has been delivering that experience. The river has been delivering the rest.
Give Back to the Places You Love (boilerplate)
Through our Round Up program and other philanthropic initiatives, guests can support preservation, education, and community programs around the places we call home — helping protect these landmarks for generations to come. Because honoring legacy also means investing in the future.
Join the Journey (boilerplate)
Landmarks of Legacy is more than a campaign. It is a movement across America’s most meaningful places — a shared commitment to the destinations that shaped our nation and continue to define who we are. Learn more at landmarksoflegacy.com.