Intro to Overnight Rafting on the Colorado River

Sample Itinerary

Day 1:

Meet at our headquarters in Green River, Utah at 8:00 a.m., Mountain Time. We’ll set you up with your waterproof bags, and provide some pointers on how to pack them. This is the best time to buy items from our warehouse store as well (take a look at our packing checklist for a list of items we stock). Next we’ll load up into our vans for the two hour ride east to the put-in at Loma, Colorado. We may take a brief pit-stop to stretch our legs and see some rock art. Once we arrive at Loma, the guides will get our rafts into the water and loaded up. After a quick orientation to the rafts, the inflatable kayaks, and stand up paddleboards, we’re ready to begin our float! Welcome to Horsethief Canyon – watch as the Entrada and Wingate Sandstone canyon walls rise around us. We’ll make our way downstream, stopping to hike up a side canyon and have lunch by the river. After lunch, it’ll be a leisurely float to camp. Take in the scenery floating by, slide into the river for a swim, or start a water fight to keep cool! We’ll pull up to camp, possibly under some Cottonwoods and ease into camp life. Your guides will get you oriented to all things camp related! Then take time to frolic in the water, hike up a side canyon, or lounge and enjoy the experience. We’ll wow you with our camp cooking skills, and as night settles in, you may even get the chance to stargaze!

Day 2:

Wake up to the song of canyon wrens, or perhaps you’ll hear a hawk call as it flies through the canyon in search of its breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, wipe the sleep from your eyes and roll on down to the kitchen where your guides will have hot coffee, tea, or hot chocolate waiting for you. Wait until you see what we’ve whipped up for your river front breakfast! After breakfast, we’ll break down our camp and load up the rafts for another day of exploring on the river! The geology today certainly won’t disappoint! Watch for the rattlesnake monocline as we leave Horsethief Canyon and enter Ruby Canyon. As we round Mee Corner, catch glimpses of Wingate Sandstone spires before casting your eyes downstream to a dramatic geologic nonconformity as 220-million year old rock lies directly on top of the 1.7-billion year old basement “black rocks.” Our camp tonight will be within these ancient black rocks. This area makes a perfect playground – explore among the rock outcroppings, take the paddleboard to some rock islands, or lace up your hiking shoes for a short but steep hike up to the rim for a stunning vista. Back at camp, listen for the sound of the California Zephyr, and be sure to give a boater’s greeting to the train as it passes by! Enjoy another marvelous camp dinner before tucking in for another night by the river.

Day 3:

Our last morning on the river will start with an interactive breakfast you won’t want to miss! We’ll push off and meander our way out of the Black Rocks, watch as they slink back below the surface of the water. We may stop near McDonald Creek to check out more rock art and learn about the Fremont Cultural group that resided here 1,000 years ago. After one final lunch on the river, we cross back into Utah and continue to follow the train tracks. The river widens and the canyon walls drop away, signifying our beautiful float is nearly coming to an end. We’ll arrive at the Westwater Ranger station for our take out around 1:00pm. Once we pull the rafts out, we’ll hop back in our vans for the one hour drive back to our Green River headquarters, arriving between 2:00-3:00pm.

As mentioned earlier, this is a sample itinerary and should not be thought of as the exact trip you will experience. It is intended to give an idea of what the trip will be like, and could also be exactly what you do. Keep an open mind, be flexible, go with the flow, and enjoy!