Rafting Dinosaur National Monument

Dinosaur National Monument straddles the Utah-Colorado border in the northwest corner of Colorado. Paleontologist Earl Douglass and his crew discovered dinosaur fossil beds in 1909, and they excavated thousands of fossils, shipping them to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pennsylvania for study and display. The findings created a great deal of interest, sending all sorts of visitors to the area. Douglass wrote to President Woodrow Wilson requesting the area be protected (against professional fossil looters and homesteaders looking to make a quick buck). Wilson proclaimed the area as a national monument in 1915. The monument was expanded from its original 80 acres to over 210,000 acres in 1938 to protect the surrounding area’s spectacular scenery, geology, ecology, and rich cultural history. In 2019, Dinosaur National Monument, was designated a Dark Sky Park by the International Dark Sky Association.

Dinosaur National Monument is typically accessed by airports in Salt Lake City (3 hours), Park City (3 hours), and Vernal (20 minutes).

OARS operates multi-day rafting trips on the Green River and the Yampa River, as well as one-day whitewater rafting trips on the Split Mountain Canyon section of the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument.

Ten different kinds of dinosaurs were discovered in what is now Dinosaur National Monument. Four of them were long-necked, long-tailed plant-eating sauropods, some of the largest land-dwelling creatures to have ever lived on Earth. More recent findings include a virtually complete skeleton of an entirely new kind of dinosaur—Allosaurus Jimmadsenii.

An OARS whitewater rafting trip in Dinosaur National Monument on the Green or the Yampa River includes paddling through fun, splashy rapids, camping on big sandy beaches, enjoying hearty, healthy meals, and a night sky like you’ve never experienced before.

The minimum age on a Split Mountain Canyon rafting trip is 6 and increases to 11 during spring high water (generally through mid- to late June). For multi-day Yampa River and Gates of Lodore trips, the minimum age is 7, except during high water when the minimum age increases to 12.