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- Aug 9, 2007
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Being pretty new to rafting, I had a progression in my head on how I thought I would develop my skills and get to the point that I could row serious whitewater rivers. My first year (2016) I did some easy stuff like Ruby Horsethief, the Green Daily and the ABC in Flaming Gorge. I figured the next year would escalate from there, perhaps finishing with a trip down Desolation. Maybe the year after that I'd be ready to move on to class IV stuff like the Yampa, Westwater and Cataract. So you can imagine my surprise when @Dave texted me last February and told me he pulled a Yampa permit on his very first try.
The Yampa is one of the hardest, if not the hardest river permit to get in the Western US. Not only is it extremely popular because of the beauty it is also difficult to visit because of the free-flowing nature of the river, the runnable window is small and flows are unpredictable. Most of the river is pretty mellow class III rapids with the exception of Warm Springs, an infamous class IV rapid formed by a landslide in the 1960's. We were not ready for that kind of whitewater, especially not in mid-June when the runoff could be peaking. But we weren't going to give up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like that either.
The next few months were spent rounding up a crew that would balance out our inexperience. Plans were made to go on some warm up trips, but my work schedule prevented me from doing anything right up until we left for our trip. In the end there would be just five of us - my kind of trip! Two rafts and one person in a hardshell kayak. Our kayaker had extensive whitewater experience across the west and the other rower was a guide. Plenty of experience to offset things.
We started the trip right where we would end it at the Split Mountain campground in Dinosaur. The next morning we loaded Alli's boat onto mine, dropped off a vehicle at the ramp and headed east into Colorado to the put-in at Deerlodge Park.
We'd heard that the rangers are very particular about having the right gear so we came prepared. The inspection turned out to be easy and soon we had our boats loaded and were on our down the Yampa for 6 glorious days with no cell phone service and hardly any people.
Floating into the mouth of Yampa Canyon.
The Park Service assigns campsites for each night of the trip. You can put in your preferences but it's mostly out of your control. They had granted our request for an extra night though so we ended up only having to row about 4 miles the first day. There were no named rapids in this section but plenty of splashy stuff and one really huge wave train that I failed to record.
A family of bighorn sheep greeted us at camp. These guys moved along the riverbank for quite a while before continuing upstream and out of sight.
The beach at Anderson Hole was fantastic. Definitely one of the best campsites of the trip.
The next day we loaded the boats and continued down the river. Today we would run into our first named rapids of the trip including a couple of Class III's and a Class III+ called Big Joe that has recently become more difficult due to a large boulder that had fallen into the river.
Tepee Rapid was the first that we came to. We stopped and scouted it. It was fun and splashy and quite easy at 6k CFS.
And on we went...
We stopped for lunch above Little Joe Rapid which turned out to be a piece of cake at the flows we were riding. The next and last rapid of the day was Big Joe. I'd read online that this was now likely the second most significant rapid in Dinosaur but it didn't look too bad on this day. The new rock was well submerged and the lines were easy to read.
We got to watch another group run Big Joe.
My run through Big Joe.
Soon we made it to our second campsite at Harding Hole. There are 4 campsites at Harding Hole so we had neighbors next door and a large commercial group at the far end of the beach. Harding Hole was a terrible place to park the boats due to large boulders, but the campsite itself was pretty nice. There was a hike to the top of the cliffs behind camp but I opted to stick around and hold a chair down.
The rocky shoreline at Harding Hole.
We arranged meals so that most of us could kick back and relax while others cooked unless it was our night.
The next day we floated across the river and made the short hike to Signature Cave.
Big walls.
We stopped late in the afternoon for another hike to Mantle Cave.
That night we stayed at Laddie Park 1 camp. It was a nice enough camp. There were crazy amounts of box elder bugs. I didn't take any pictures.
The next day we continued down river and went hunting for some rock art. I had the rough idea of where they were at but didn't really know. We ended up finding quite a bit of rock art that wasn't what we were looking for like these rough petroglyphs.
And this faint panel of pictographs and petroglyphs.
It was quite the adventure hiking around the benches above the river.
After thinking we had found the rock art, we got back to the boats and I soon spotted this from the water further downstream. It turns out this is what we were looking for all along.
@Dave for some scale.
And then it was back to the river. Passing by the famous Tiger Wall.
Our only rapid this day would be Warm Springs. I won't lie, I was nervous. But I also wanted to just get it done. The scenery en route was superb.
That's Warm Springs wall on the left in the distance. The rapid is at the base of it. The rapid has changed in recent years from large rockfalls off of that 1600'+ face.
When we got to the scout for Warm Springs we found a lot of company. There was a group with about 8 boats there scouting as well, some of which were National Park Service boats. On the bright side, that meant we got to watch them go through!
And my run of Warm Springs.
It was just a mile or two to our next camp at Box Elder 3. After just finishing Warm Springs, it was a great little victory float. The sun even came back out for us.
Box Elder 3 turned out to be the best campsite in all of Yampa Canyon. It would also be our last campsite on the Yampa as we were only a few miles from the confluence with the Green River in Echo Park.
Floating into Echo park the next day.
You can see the brown Yampa mixing with the green Green River here.
Incredible geology as we enter Whirlpool Canyon.
There were a few minor rapids and riffles and soon enough we made it to our next campsite at Jones Hole #1.
After setting up camp we grabbed some water and hiked up Jones Hole to see 'Buttplug Falls'.
I was having too much fun in the waterfall to get any video of the buttplug effect, but if you want to see it, be sure to check out Dave's trip report here: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/six-days-in-dinosaur.6943/
Back at camp.
The deer here were fearless.
The next day we had about 20 miles of river to float with some good rapids between us and the take out.
Leaving Whirlpool Canyon.
Entering Split Mountain.
Split Mountain was an awesome, fun section with 4 named rapids and lots of splashy stuff in between. Here's a clip with the four named rapids. The first and last were the biggest.
Group shot at the takeout at Split Mountain. Best trip of the year, hands down.
The Yampa is one of the hardest, if not the hardest river permit to get in the Western US. Not only is it extremely popular because of the beauty it is also difficult to visit because of the free-flowing nature of the river, the runnable window is small and flows are unpredictable. Most of the river is pretty mellow class III rapids with the exception of Warm Springs, an infamous class IV rapid formed by a landslide in the 1960's. We were not ready for that kind of whitewater, especially not in mid-June when the runoff could be peaking. But we weren't going to give up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like that either.
The next few months were spent rounding up a crew that would balance out our inexperience. Plans were made to go on some warm up trips, but my work schedule prevented me from doing anything right up until we left for our trip. In the end there would be just five of us - my kind of trip! Two rafts and one person in a hardshell kayak. Our kayaker had extensive whitewater experience across the west and the other rower was a guide. Plenty of experience to offset things.
We started the trip right where we would end it at the Split Mountain campground in Dinosaur. The next morning we loaded Alli's boat onto mine, dropped off a vehicle at the ramp and headed east into Colorado to the put-in at Deerlodge Park.
We'd heard that the rangers are very particular about having the right gear so we came prepared. The inspection turned out to be easy and soon we had our boats loaded and were on our down the Yampa for 6 glorious days with no cell phone service and hardly any people.
Floating into the mouth of Yampa Canyon.
The Park Service assigns campsites for each night of the trip. You can put in your preferences but it's mostly out of your control. They had granted our request for an extra night though so we ended up only having to row about 4 miles the first day. There were no named rapids in this section but plenty of splashy stuff and one really huge wave train that I failed to record.
A family of bighorn sheep greeted us at camp. These guys moved along the riverbank for quite a while before continuing upstream and out of sight.
The beach at Anderson Hole was fantastic. Definitely one of the best campsites of the trip.
The next day we loaded the boats and continued down the river. Today we would run into our first named rapids of the trip including a couple of Class III's and a Class III+ called Big Joe that has recently become more difficult due to a large boulder that had fallen into the river.
Tepee Rapid was the first that we came to. We stopped and scouted it. It was fun and splashy and quite easy at 6k CFS.
And on we went...
We stopped for lunch above Little Joe Rapid which turned out to be a piece of cake at the flows we were riding. The next and last rapid of the day was Big Joe. I'd read online that this was now likely the second most significant rapid in Dinosaur but it didn't look too bad on this day. The new rock was well submerged and the lines were easy to read.
We got to watch another group run Big Joe.
My run through Big Joe.
Soon we made it to our second campsite at Harding Hole. There are 4 campsites at Harding Hole so we had neighbors next door and a large commercial group at the far end of the beach. Harding Hole was a terrible place to park the boats due to large boulders, but the campsite itself was pretty nice. There was a hike to the top of the cliffs behind camp but I opted to stick around and hold a chair down.
The rocky shoreline at Harding Hole.
We arranged meals so that most of us could kick back and relax while others cooked unless it was our night.
The next day we floated across the river and made the short hike to Signature Cave.
Big walls.
We stopped late in the afternoon for another hike to Mantle Cave.
That night we stayed at Laddie Park 1 camp. It was a nice enough camp. There were crazy amounts of box elder bugs. I didn't take any pictures.
The next day we continued down river and went hunting for some rock art. I had the rough idea of where they were at but didn't really know. We ended up finding quite a bit of rock art that wasn't what we were looking for like these rough petroglyphs.
And this faint panel of pictographs and petroglyphs.
It was quite the adventure hiking around the benches above the river.
After thinking we had found the rock art, we got back to the boats and I soon spotted this from the water further downstream. It turns out this is what we were looking for all along.
@Dave for some scale.
And then it was back to the river. Passing by the famous Tiger Wall.
Our only rapid this day would be Warm Springs. I won't lie, I was nervous. But I also wanted to just get it done. The scenery en route was superb.
That's Warm Springs wall on the left in the distance. The rapid is at the base of it. The rapid has changed in recent years from large rockfalls off of that 1600'+ face.
When we got to the scout for Warm Springs we found a lot of company. There was a group with about 8 boats there scouting as well, some of which were National Park Service boats. On the bright side, that meant we got to watch them go through!
And my run of Warm Springs.
It was just a mile or two to our next camp at Box Elder 3. After just finishing Warm Springs, it was a great little victory float. The sun even came back out for us.
Box Elder 3 turned out to be the best campsite in all of Yampa Canyon. It would also be our last campsite on the Yampa as we were only a few miles from the confluence with the Green River in Echo Park.
Floating into Echo park the next day.
You can see the brown Yampa mixing with the green Green River here.
Incredible geology as we enter Whirlpool Canyon.
There were a few minor rapids and riffles and soon enough we made it to our next campsite at Jones Hole #1.
After setting up camp we grabbed some water and hiked up Jones Hole to see 'Buttplug Falls'.
I was having too much fun in the waterfall to get any video of the buttplug effect, but if you want to see it, be sure to check out Dave's trip report here: https://backcountrypost.com/threads/six-days-in-dinosaur.6943/
Back at camp.
The deer here were fearless.
The next day we had about 20 miles of river to float with some good rapids between us and the take out.
Leaving Whirlpool Canyon.
Entering Split Mountain.
Split Mountain was an awesome, fun section with 4 named rapids and lots of splashy stuff in between. Here's a clip with the four named rapids. The first and last were the biggest.
Group shot at the takeout at Split Mountain. Best trip of the year, hands down.
