The Yampa River in northwestern Colorado provides boaters with access to spectacular canyon country. Canyon caves yield clues that nomadic Indians hunted and fished here thousands of years ago. The melting spring snows swell this river making May to late-June the best boating months. The swift downstream currents carry rafters through Teepee, Little Joe, and Big Joe rapids preparing them for Warm Springs, the Yampa's biggest whitewater. Soaring Navajo sandstone walls and shady box elder groves insure river campsites that are some of the finest found on the Colorado Plateau.
At Echo Park, the Yampa joins the Green River, making a 180° turn around Steamboat Rock, before plunging onward into Whirlpool Canyon. On a much larger river now, Jones Hole will be our final campsite. Much of our day there will be spent wandering along an upstream trail beside this sparkling trout stream. An exciting finish day is guaranteed as our rafts descend at a 20 foot per mile pace through Moonshine, S.O.B., Schoolboy, and Inglesby rapids with assorted riffles in between, ultimately emerging from the Split Mountain Gorge at the Dinosaur National Monument takeout.
Rafters meet at Deerlodge Park to rig their rafts and then enjoy 70 miles of exhilerating whitewater from there to Split Mountain Campground. Deerlodge Park is located in northwestern Colorado near the Utah border, north of US 40 between the towns of Maybell and Elk Springs. The closest town for major airline connection is Grand Junction. Public transportation from Grand Junction to Deerlodge Park or even nearby Vernal is problematic, so rafters usually arrange private transportation for themselves or share a ride with others. This is a popular trip with permits granted through a lottery that is administered by Dinosaur National Park.
Originates @ Vernal, Utah.
River Camp
Echo Park
