Colorado River Music Trip with Spencer and Friends

Spencer, Nik & Landon

Spencer, Nik & Landon on their 2022 Lodore music trip.

Join us this summer for an extra-special Colorado River rafting trip with Spencer and Friends!

Combine your love for Cataract Canyon with your appreciation for local folk music and indie rock. Spencer and Friends have been playing together for almost 15 years. Although school, work, and life have called Spencer, Nik, and Landon in different directions since they got their start playing Guns N’ Roses covers in their parents’ basements, this summer, they’re getting the band back together. And they’re bringing it on the river.

Live, acoustic music is a natural complement to any river trip. Guitar harmonies flow in tune with the water and the canyon walls. Spend six days stretched out on large sandy beaches under Cataract’s majestic sandstone walls. Tap your toes while Spencer and Friends weave their unique sound into the landscape. Spencer’s love for electronic music melds with Landon and Nik’s laid-back, alternative, and classic rock styles. With acoustic guitars, an acoustic bass, and a guitar-ukulele, they’ll craft the soundtrack for the trip.

In true Holiday go-with-the-flow style, the musicians will time their performances to fit the overall vibe of the group, the canyon, and the river. Each day may include breakfast jamming, an evening camp circle concert, or a session at some of our hiking destinations. This trip will also hit the high notes of any Cataract Canyon expedition: varied geology, tranquil flatwater followed by epic whitewater, and magical side hikes. And, of course, our incomparable guides will take care of all the cooking, camp chores, and rowing! We’re especially excited about this one—Spencer Torman is one of Holiday’s own guides. We can’t wait to see him bring together his dual passions for music and the river.

Listen to Spencer’s newly released single, “RIP Glen”, and learn more about the trio here.

Read More:  Insider’s Guide to Rafting the Colorado River through Cataract Canyon.

Green River, Utah: Things to Do and Places to Explore

Holiday is an authorized concessioner of Canyonlands National Park.  Additionally, (& more importantly) southern Utah’s canyon country was home to Indigenous people and cultures long before our modern society existed. Out of respect for these people, Holiday wishes to acknowledge that Cataract Canyon and the stretches of the Green and Colorado Rivers that approach it are the traditional homelands of the Pueblos and the Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ (Ute) people. Read more about our land acknowledgments here.
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Trip Overview

  • Type:

    Music

  • Location:

    Colorado River - Canyonlands National Park

  • Length:

    6 Days

  • Dates:

    August 13-18, 2023

  • Meet at:

    Green River, UT @ 7:00 pm night before trip

  • Difficulty:

    Intermediate

  • Min. Age:

    8

  • Deposit:

    400

Highlights

  • Enjoy informal concerts from gifted local musicians
  • Access remote sections of Canyonlands National Park
  • Great swimming opportunities with a balance of flat water and rapids
  • Huge sandy beaches, red cliffs, and starry nights
  • Camp along the river while professional guides take care of all the work
Getting Here Before You Go Packing List FAQs

Rates & Dates

6 Days

  • Adult:
  • $1,565
  • Youth:
    18 and under
  • $1,565
  • Senior:
    65 and older
  • $1,565
  • Group:
    10 or more
  • $1,565
Book This Trip
Check Availability
2023
  • August 13-18

Itinerary

Cataract Canyon trips launch from the Potash boat ramp on the Colorado River just south of Moab, Utah. Float through 47 miles of unbelievable canyon scenery to the confluence with the Green River at the center of Canyonlands National Park. This is where the whitewater starts. After more than 30 exhilarating rapids, we’ll arrive at the northern tip of Lake Powell, and take out near the former Hite Marina.

 

Sample Itinerary

The night before your trip:

You will meet at our Green River, Utah, warehouse for a 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time pre-trip meeting. Your guides will give you waterproof bags and offer some tips on how best to pack them. You will have time to purchase last minute items from our store (look over our packing checklist for a list of such items). Please consider dropping off any personal beverages (specialty sodas, beer, wine, etc.) at this time so that we can pack them into our coolers.

Day 1:

We’ll meet you back at our Green River headquarters in the morning at the time determined during the pre-trip meeting. It’s a 90-minute ride to the put-in. A brief orientation to the rafts and small crafts and then it’s time to see what awaits us downstream! Hop in an inflatable kayak or onto a stand-up paddle board (SUP) for some exercise, or settle in on a raft. We’ll lunch on a sandbar and maybe take a short afternoon hike to an exposed petrified wood boneyard. Look up high to wave to visitors at Dead Horse Point State Park. Settle in to camp on one of the Colorado River’s many giant, sandy beaches and enjoy the first of five nights filled with music and laughter.

Day 2:

Morning sun makes the walls glow extra golden. Listen for the descending song of the canyon wren, or paddle your SUP along the shore in search of otters and great blue herons. The Colorado meanders peacefully in this section. Swim alongside the rafts or lounge under an umbrella; the afternoon may provide the opportunity to hike to thousand-year-old rock structures built by the Fremont Culture. On these long flat stretches you might get the opportunity to enjoy a Spencer and Friends music party barge while the guides float you serenely down river.

Day 3:

As we continue downstream, keep your eyes scanning the cliff walls to identify ancient food storage structures called granaries. The morning will be our last bit of calm water for a while. We’ll reach the confluence where the Green River joins the Colorado; a spot some cultures believe to be the center of the universe. Buckle up your PFD to swim through the line where the two rivers intermingle. Cast your gaze to the canyon rim where you’ll see a dramatic collection of freestanding sandstone columns known as the Doll House. This is one of the most remote regions of the Maze District of Canyonlands. Just around the river bend, rapids await us! Run rapid 1, Brown Betty, and then we may stop for camp on a giant sandy beach.

Day 4:

Wake to the sound of nature’s white noise machine: rapids! After a hearty breakfast, we’ll review whitewater safety, snug up our PFDs, and prepare to get splashed. We’ll stop and scout a few of the biggest rapids, giving plenty of time for the suspense to build. Hold on tight for the Big Drops: Little Niagara and Satan’s Gut! We may stop and look at some historic inscriptions or explore one of the many side canyons. We’ll roll into our camp for the night, and celebrate our successful runs with a riverside feast. Although more rapids await us tomorrow, we’ve officially transitioned from Cataract Canyon into Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Hear from the guides about this section of river, which is in constant flux these days, and then kick back to listen to Spence and Friends, perhaps they’ll even share some songs that capture the specialness of where we rest tonight.

Day 5:

As we wave goodbye to our camp, turn your eyes downstream. Imperial rapid, a guide favorite, awaits us with morning splashes! These lower canyon rapids are frequently changing; your guide may have stories about how they’ve even changed in the past year! After a few more splashes, we’ll pass through Gypsum Rapid and enter Narrow Canyon. Side hikes are aplenty around here, and we may spend the afternoon hiking and climbing up any number of special canyons. Once buried under the high waters of Lake Powell, as the reservoir water level drops, buried treasures are uncovered. Settle in for one last magical night of music on the river.

Day 6:

With calm waters again the canyon walls rise, smooth and majestic. This section of canyon is variably – when the reservoir level is high, we’re on a lake. And yet, when the reservoir level is low, as it has been recently, the Colorado River current remains strong. Depending on the reservoir level, we may get an assist from our “Seldom Seen” motorboat. We’ll float under the Hite Narrows Bridge and pull over just beyond the mouth of the Dirty Devil River. A two-hour drive brings us back to Green River. Our expected time of arrival back at our headquarters is from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Wilderness river trips are changeable by nature. Please understand that this is only a sample itinerary. You may have the opportunity to do all of the above activities, or you may have a variety of other memorable and exciting experiences. Holiday’s motto is “Go With the Flow,” and we encourage you to arrive with an open mind, a flexible attitude, and an appetite for adventure!

Cataract Music Trip Scenery

Cataract Canyon trips are true wilderness adventures, and itineraries vary widely depending on weather, the desires of each group, campsite availability, and the need to be courteous to other groups on the river. This is a sample itinerary intended to provide one example of a six-day trip through Cataract.

 

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Holiday River Expeditions
Average rating:  
 1 reviews
 by Allan & Holly Larsen Chen

All of the trips I've taken with Holiday River have been great, and this trip was no exception. This was a music trip, and I enjoyed the nightly riverside concerts by our own on-river, in-house band, as well as a few daytime serenades. I really enjoyed talking music and radio with you, Spencer, Nick, Landon. And thanks for getting the Led out.

Holiday River guides are always great. Thanks, Cloud, for your excellent leadership and management of our journey, Spencer, for the music and your expert oar handling, Kyle, for your insights on what we were seeing, Josh, for your entertaining stories (especially that beer story), and Lucy, for your skillful rowing, river knowledge, poise, and general unflappability in the face of no matter what happened. And thanks, all guides, for the great food. If I have five people at brunch anytime soon, I'll show them how to make five omelets at the same time.