Kayaking In A Winter Wonderland

Caldwell, Idaho is home to Indian Creek Plaza and perhaps the best Christmas light display in the state. Last year, a few guys local to the area paddled through the Christmas light display and the spectators loved it, so these guys tried to organize a larger event for this year.

The Christmas light display attracts a lot of people and on the Saturday evening before Christmas, it was about as crowded as it gets. On this evening, hundreds of people made it out to view the lights, and many of these people had the extra surprise of seeing decorated paddlers braving the (not so cold) water.

I was surprised to show up and see about thirty paddlers there ready to participate. We had inflatables, flatwater kayaks, canoes, and Jackson Kayaks! Some of the paddlers dressed the part of Santa, many had Christmas lights attached to their boats and gear, and everybody was sharing in the huge bag of glow sticks.

Just after dark, we pushed off and everybody quickly made their way downstream. The Voorhees family and I hung out near the back and we all spent a few minutes playing at the one whitewater feature on the run. The Voorhees brothers were impressing the crowd with some freestyle action.

Just downstream, we navigated around other decorations like Santa’s fishing boat and an iceberg full of penguins.

The entire run is literally a few hundred yards long and can be paddled in a minute or two. Next year, I’d like to go on the same Saturday before Christmas, take my playboat, spend more time decorating my boat and myself, and try to have an hour session at the freestyle feature on this run. It’s not a great feature, but the spectators sure love to watch.

Thank you to the gentleman that offered us these photographs and encouraged us to share them.