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 isn’t 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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