Solo Travelers Colorado River Rafting Trip

Sample Itinerary

The night before your trip:

In order to facilitate a speedy start to the trip, we ask you to attend a pre-trip meeting at our Green River, Utah, warehouse at 8:00 p.m. Mountain Time. Meet your guides and pick up your dry bags and pick up any last minute items from our store (look over our packing checklist for a list of such items). We’d love it if you also dropped off any personal beverages (specialty sodas, beer, wine, etc.) at this time so that we can pack them into our coolers.

Day 1:

Meet at our Green River headquarters at the time determined during the pre-trip meeting. We’ll drive 90 minutes to the put in, just southwest of the town of Moab. And then: ahhhhh. River time. Settle in on a raft or do some paddling in an inflatable kayak or on a stand-up paddle board (SUP). We’ll have lunch (chicken curry salad, anyone?) on a sandbar and maybe take a short afternoon hike to see a remarkable collection of petrified wood. Float beneath Dead Horse Point State Park and God’s Golfball before pulling in to a beach camp.

Day 2:

Enjoy the morning light on the canyon walls while you sip tea or coffee and eat breakfast. Bird song fills the air as we float downstream. Great blue herons fly ahead of us, and we may be lucky enough to spot a beaver along the shore. As the day warms, you may swim alongside the rafts or choose to lounge under an umbrella. Go on an afternoon hike to see thousand-year-old pictographs and rock structures built by the Fremont Culture. Your guides will point out granaries (ancient food storage structures) on the cliff walls as we continue downstream.

Day 3:

Today: arrive at the confluence of the Colorado and Green rivers, the center of the universe! The two rivers are frequently different colors and temperatures. Dangle your toes in the water or swim through the mixing currents where the two rivers meet. We’ll stop at the iconic Cataract Canyon sign that warns of rapids ahead, and sign up in The Box for downstream camps. Look up to your right for a view of the Doll House, a collection of pink and white sandstone columns. This is one of the most remote regions of the Maze District of Canyonlands.

Day 4:

Depending on where we camp, we may be able to start the day with a hike into the Doll House. It’s a big climb, but worthwhile. Ascend the steep trail to the canyon rim and explore surreal rock formations and prehistoric artifacts. Below, we’ll prepare for the rapids: more than 30 in 16 miles. We’ll stop and scout a few of the big ones, and may even camp in between the two biggest, Big Drop 2 and Big Drop 3. Let the steady roar lull you to sleep.

Day 5:

Enjoy a leisurely start to the day. We’ll run through more rapids, and perhaps go on a hike into a short slot canyon or a longer canyon with running water and pools. Celebrate one last night on the river with a steak and salmon dinner.

Day 6:

The canyon walls begin to close around us as we float into Lower Cataract Canyon. We’re now officially in Lake Powell, although depending on how high or low the reservoir is, it may still feel like a river. When the reservoir is high and the river current sluggish, our “Seldom Seen” motorboat will meet us to push us off the last few miles. Otherwise, we’ll row all the way to the Hite Narrows Bridge and take out 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, and flexibility is key. Please understand that this is only a sample itinerary. Your trip may camp in different places and go on different hikes. Whatever the itinerary, we can assure you that you’ll see and do incredible things!