Dinosaur River Expeditions Four Day White Water Rafting Trip on The Green River

Imagine leisurely floating down a massive river on beautiful, blue-sky, sunny days through tall, sharp, red, steep canyon walls all around you. Now imagine this without having to do any paddling or cooking for four days.

That is what Dinosaur River Expeditions provides on their Gates of Lodore white-water rafting trip down The Green River through Dinosaur National Monument.

Dinosaur River Expeditions blew my expectations out of the water (pun intended) on my first ever white-water rafting trip. ​

Visiting Dinosaur National Monument had been on my Colorado Bucket List for years and visiting by river is one of the best ways to see The Monument. 

The entire Dinosaur National Monument is 210,000 acres. The Green River and its tributary waters encompass 58 miles of the monument with a majority of that being inaccessible by roads and barely by foot. Dinosaur National Monument also includes The Yampa River which converges with The Green River to make up for the rest of the park.
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​The waters inside the monument are highly protected. I was unbelievably lucky to have been able to join a chartered expedition. Only a handful of groups can be on the river each day.
 
Two chartered and one private expedition can launch on The Green River per day, and only one private and one charter expedition can launch on The Yampa River daily. These restrictions keep the landscape in the monument beautiful, clean, and wild.
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Check out the Dinosaur River Expeditions website to learn more about all of their trips through The Green River, Yampa River, and Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
There are other companies allowed to go through Dinosaur National Monument, but Dinosaur River Expeditions is the only locally owned operator! 

This was my first guided river trip ever, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect or pack before we left. After going through Dinosaur River Expeditions online checklist, I felt well-prepared. 
 
After the trip, there were a few things I really wish I had packed including:

• Another pair of pants - I cannot stress the importance of sun protection while on the water enough. There is nothing worse than getting sunburnt one day and having to endure additional days in the sun. I brought one pair of quick dry capris with me and wore them nearly every day. I wish I had brought one more pair so that when they got sandy, I could put on a fresh pair.

 

•  A jacket -Nights and early mornings inside the canyon were pretty chilly. I wish I had brought a jacket to sit around the fire at night and to eat breakfast in the morning.

 

• Extra pairs of clothes - I was so used to packing for my normal backpacking trips that I didn’t realize I could have brought multiple pairs of clothes like pajamas or t-shirts. When my clothes got soaked one night, it would have been nice to have had dry clothes to change into!

 

• Fun things to keep you entertained at night - The guides did a great job providing activities especially for the kids including bocce ball, costumes, and a homemade water slide. I wish I had brought more books and my journal. There was a lot of peaceful downtime that I spent fishing and photographing, but I still had plenty of leftover time I could have spent reading or writing. 

 

• Headlamp - This is needed for going to the bathroom at night. There is a specific toilet system they ask you to use, and it can be hard to find in the dark.

 

• Solar charger - If you have one, I recommend it along with battery banks. You will want to take lots of pictures and videos on the trip, and I was super glad to have brought mine, but I kept it in my overnight bag, so it was useless during the day. I should’ve kept it on the boat with me to charge my things during the day!

 

• Booked a hotel for the arrival night - This isn’t something I wish I packed, but after the long, hot days on the water, the last thing I wanted to do was camp after the expedition. I was lucky to get a room at The Dinosaur Inn between the Fourth of July and the rodeo arriving the next weekend!​

Other than clothes and personal items, the only other thing we had to pack were our tents. It was as easy as that! Everything else like food, water, and chairs were all covered by Dinosaur River Expeditions.
 
It was a luxurious trip to have every meal cooked and guides rowing me down the river, except we were all pretty dirty by the end of the trip! That being said, to be so well taken care of did feel like pampering.

The entire four-day trip is documented in my video below! Watch it to see just how gorgeous this national monument is.  

 Here was our itinerary for our four days on The Green River:

 Pre-Trip – Dinosaur River Expeditions Office
 
The night before we left for our trip, we all met for the first time at Dinosaur River Expeditions’s office in Vernal, Utah. We went over safety procedures, general guidelines and information, then received our dry bags.
 
We each received an overnight bag to hold our clothes and other things along with a day bag for personal items to keep near us on the boat.
 
After we all asked questions and met the guides; the owners, Jen and Tyler; and all the other rafters, we were dismissed to go pack up and get a good night’s rest before meeting early the next morning.

Day One – The Gates of Lodore
 
Before we hit the water, we met at The Dinosaur Inn to load our bags and tents into the vans around 7 a.m. Once we were all in the vans, we rode nearly two and a half hours from Vernal, Utah, to The Gates of Lodore.

Arriving at the Gates of Lodore put in.

When we arrived, the guides were already there with the boats and waiting to load them with our gear. It was a quick process, and before I knew it, we were pushing off!

Our guides rowed for only a few minutes, and we were entering The Gates of Lodore. It felt like we were entering into another world when we crossed through “The Gates”. The landscape changed from an open beach area to a narrow, steep red-rock canyon that dwarfed us.

The Gates of Lodore from The Green River.

The first half of the day was nice and smooth before we stopped for lunch at Winnie’s Grotto. We took a quick hike into the canyon while the guides prepared our first lunch. After a lunch of taco salad wraps, we hopped back into the boats, but not for long before we stopped to scope out Disaster Falls.

Lunch at Winnies Grotto!

Disaster Falls was named during the famous John Wesley Powell expeditions. They crashed their boats here and only saved a barrel of whiskey. When we made it past the falls safely, we arrived at Whiskey Beach where our guides aptly had a bottle of whiskey waiting for us! It wasn’t long until we set up camp at Pot Creek. The guides prepared dinner for us and set up a nice little bonfire in the middle of our circle of chairs.

Scoping out Disaster Falls.

​That night, we went to bed with stars overhead, but that quickly changed around 2 a.m. when the bottom dropped out of the sky, and a lightning and thunderstorm broke out. Several of us had our rain flies off our tents, and I learned the next morning that everyone had just as disastrous of a night as I had. Tents were flying all over the place, and people’s gear was now soaking wet. 
 
We all survived and had some fun stories to tell, but we all learned a lesson and slept with our rain flies on our tents for the rest of the trip. 

Campsite #1, learned to put the rain fly on every night after this one.

Day Two – Hell’s Half Mile and Triplet Falls
 
It was the Fourth of July, and all of us were cheerful and chipper despite the lack of sleep during the storm the night before. After the guides cooked our breakfast of French toast and sausage, we packed away our soaking wet gear and right away started the day on the water with some rapids.

Happy Fourth of July!

First up was Harp Falls and then Triplet Falls before Hell’s Half Mile. This was our most eventful day on the water with all of these rapids coming back to back to back with stopping and scoping the river required for Triplet Falls and Hell’s Half Mile.
 
All the guides successfully navigated the falls, and we stopped for a nice sandwich lunch when it was all over. We didn’t have a far float to our campsite after lunch, so I hopped in a “ducky” inflatable kayak for the rest of the day.

The inflatable kayaks they call "duckies" because they follow along behind all the big boats!

We set up camp and dried our things before dinner and the Fourth of July festivities. Our guides brought hair coloring, leis, costumes, and glow sticks to get us in the mood for Independence Day. They even put on a “fireworks” show at the end of the night by throwing glow sticks and banging mats on the ground to imitate a real show. It was a great way to end the very silly night.

Ben coloring peoples hair.

Fourth of July patriotism.

Day Three – Echo Park
 
We awoke to the daily yelling of, “Coffee!” by the guides and a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs. We had all slept much better than the first night, so we packed things up a bit earlier. ​

Breakfast.

It was a much calmer day on the river compared to the first two in terms of rapids, but geologically, the scenery was the most dramatic on the third day; We passed through some of the most famous parts of Dinosaur National Monument.

These are different layers of formations on top of each other. Millions of years old rocks.

Mitten Park as seen from The Green River.

Echo Park and Steamboat Rock are near the convergence of The Green and Yampa Rivers. Echo Park is named for a massive rock wall that when yelled at can echo over a dozen times. That day, we only heard three echoes, and the guides said timing is everything here!

Steamboat Rock at the confluence of The Green and Yampa Rivers.

Next, we went through Whirlpool Canyon before stopping for lunch and a hike at Jones Hole. This beautiful stream comes from a fish hatchery above the canyon walls, so some of us opted out of the hike to do some fishing. We didn’t have any luck, and I regretted missing out on things like “Butt Plug Falls” and some ancient petroglyphs.

Jones Hole - I stayed to fish while the group went on a hike.

​We went just a bit further downstream to set up camp. This campsite was the windiest place I’ve ever been! Even the folks from Chicago were complaining, and they’re from “the windy city”!

We had a pretty gritty dinner with the wind blowing sand all over our plates and the cooking area, but the guides lifted our spirits by building a water slide out of one of the boats being flipped upside down. Another group of guests took it upon themselves to put on a shadow puppet show against the canyon walls, and we all had a great laugh before getting into our tents.

Day Four – Split Mountain
 
The final day of the expedition was bittersweet. Many of the kids on the trip couldn’t wait to get home, shower, and sleep in their own beds, while some of us - myself included - wished the trip never had to end. As we sat around and ate our pancake breakfast, we all reminisced on how sweet the trip had been and how much we cherished each other’s company.

Sunrise from our last campsite.

We had a very easy day boating through Island Park. The water was almost lake-like in its stillness, and there were no rapids at all. Our guides actually had to work the hardest here to push us through. Island Park was the hottest, and frankly most annoying part of the entire trip. 

We circled back into Split Mountain, and because of the open landscape with still water, the biting bugs and mosquitoes were out in full force. We were here midday, so the sun was also beating down. Luckily, this section didn’t last too long, and we were back between the walls of the canyons for lunch.

​After our last meal on the water of Caesar salad wraps, we played a fun game of “Yee-Haw” - a game that requires people to memorize moves to throw at their neighbors in hopes to get them out. After a sweet, young girl won the game with her great impersonation of a pumpkin, we hopped back into the rafts one last time for the final stretch.
 
Split Mountain was a gorgeous final area. The swirly mountains surrounded either side of the river appearing to have opened up for the water to pass through. I sat in awe knowing this was the last view I would see from the river.

Back into Split Mountain!

The exit off the boat was just as quick as our entrance. Once we docked, we quickly grabbed our belongings and loaded them into the vans. Just like that, we were back where we started!

​We rode back to The Dino Inn and unloaded the dry bags into our respective vehicles. It all happened so fast that it felt like a big slap in the face by reality, but once we said our final goodbyes, it hit me how truly incredible this trip had been. 

I could never say enough great things about Dinosaur National Monument, Dinosaur River Expeditions, the guides, the other guests, or the overall experience I had during this four-day white-water rafting trip. It was truly remarkable.

Book your own adventure with Dinosaur River Expeditions, here!
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After I finally came down from the clouds and reality truly did set back in, I spent the next few days exploring around Dinosaur National Monument and the Vernal, Utah area. 
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Read more about that entire solo road trip in my blog posts here!