Yampa and Green Through Dinosaur National Monument
Location: Northwestern Colorado (about 210 miles northwest of Denver; about 170 miles east of Salt Lake City).
Length of trips: 71 miles (46 on the Yampa, 25 on the Green) in four to six days.
Season: May and June. The water flow varies, depending on the snowpack, but usually peaks in mid-May.
Weather: In May and early June daytime temperatures average 55° to 70°F, dropping into the 50s at night. In late June daytime temperatures rise into the 80s, with nighttime temperatures in the 60s. Rain showers can cool things off.
Lodging: Riverside campsites on sandy beaches and in trees at the mouths of smaller canyons. Also motels in Vernal, Utah.
Boats: Kayaks, oar boats, paddle rafts.
Rapids: Numerous Class II, III, and IV rapids, depending on the season. Warm Springs rapid can reach Class V during high water. The cold, silty water warms up in summer.
Special features:
- One of the most popular river trips in the West.
- Striking panoramas of rounded buttes, slickrock canyons, and bizarre rock formations known as hoodoos.
- Some of the most challenging white water in the West, including Warm Springs rapid, formed in 1965 by a flash flood.
- Fine hikes to canyon overlooks and side canyons ribboned with waterfalls and decorated with petroglyphs of the vanished Fremont people.
- Bighorn sheep, mule deer, river otters, beavers, golden eagles, peregrine falcons.
- Wilderness solitude.
- Great for river runners of all levels.
Nearby excursions:
- Fossil dinosaur remains and exhibit at Dinosaur Quarry, near Jensen, Utah.
- Lodore Canyon.
- Flaming Gorge.
For a list of outfitters and more information:
- River Office, Dinosaur National Monument, 4545 Highway 40, Dinosaur, Colorado 81610; +1 970 374 2468, fax +1 970 374 3003. Try to book at least three or four months in advance, although a year isnt too early.
- For a list of Colorado outfitters, contact the Colorado River Outfitters Association (CROA), 4098 Surrey Court, Lafayette, Colorado 80026; +1 303 369 4632.
For more information:
- Colorado Travel and Tourism Authority, P.O. Box 22005, Denver, Colorado 80222; +1 303 296 3384 or 800 265 6723.
- Dinosaur National Monument story in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER, Spring 1984.
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