Raft the Rio takes rafters down the Rio Grande

Dozens of people drifted lazily down the rio grande in Las Cruces with Raft the Rio.

This was the 18th year Raft the Rio was put on, and it looks like the tradition will keep going strong.

From kayaks to homemade rafts, dozens of borderland residents enjoyed the Rio Grande Saturday, Raft the Rio bringing them all down the slowly flowing waters as they enjoyed the five mile trip.

“It originally started out to be, to make people aware of the rio grande and its environmental impact…this is a community event, this is something fun, this is something you do in the summer,” said John Northcutt, president of the Las Cruces Kiwani Club, the host organization.

While some came down in store bought kayaks others decided to be a little more risky, building their own boats and giving them themes to follow, even if they had no shipwright experience at all.

“It was already pink, so we decided we could do the Pink Panther, or we could do something with breast cancer. So we went with Cancer awareness since the boat was already pink,” explained two brothers who navigated a pink boat down the river.

Most people who built their own rafts used recycled materials, some going for recycled wood held together by sheer force of will and others taking lighter materials to give them a new purpose.