Montgomery Whitewater opens tomorrow, and it is a great place to visit for lovers of outdoor activities. Montgomery Whitewater is a new 120-acre outdoor recreation facility located in Montgomery near the Maxwell Air Force Base.
The park is centered around whitewater activities including rafting and kayaking. Future plans for the park include land activities like rock climbing, mountain biking, ropes courses, and walking trails.
Dave Hepp is the General Manager of the park Montgomery Whitewater. He says the purpose of the facility is to encourage people to enjoy outdoor spaces.
“The goal is to bring the community together you know, really all walks of life,” he said. “It's essentially set up similar to a city or community park. It's open door it's, certainly have to come through a gate in the beginning but we're looking to get people outside and kind of transform this 120-acre piece of property that's right along the Alabama River, and has so much potential, we're really looking for folks to come down into downtown.”
Celebrating the opening of the new facility, a Grand Opening Festival will be taking place July 7, 8, and 9. The festival will start with a ribbon cutting ceremony in the morning, and then US Age Group Nationals in whitewater slalom race will kick off the rest of the weekend events.
According to the American Canoe Association, whitewater slalom race is an Olympic sport consists of navigating a canoe or kayak through a course of rapids and a combination of downstream and upstream in a river.
Hepp says Montgomery Whitewater itself is set up well to host Olympic team trials or a World Cup event in the sport, but for now are in the infancy state.
“A venue like this in the long term can be a huge, you know. It can make a huge impact on the whitewater slalom community, if and when like a facility like this kind of gets a program going and get the kids learning how to paddle and then eventually turns them into racers and kind of go from there.”
He also says they are starting on a regional size event for their firsts years before trying races on a higher competitive level.
Montgomery Whitewater is also a new live music venue where you can jam out to new and emerging national artists. The Grand Opening Festival will feature live music including Harper O’Neill and Devon Gilfillian. On Saturday morning, people can also enjoy free yoga or participate in a 5K race. There will be an extreme kayaking race and a corporate raft race.
Entry to the site is free, and whitewater activities are purchase separately. A $10 parking fee will be in effect from 3:30 p.m. Friday to 6:00 p.m. Sunday.
For more information on Montgomery Whitewater Grand Opening Festival go here: Grand Opening Weekend - Montgomery Whitewater
