Warm Springs Camp
The staging camp above Warm Springs Rapid — the Yampa's biggest whitewater, created by a 1965 debris flow that transformed the river.
Also known as: Warm Springs
Warm Springs Camp sits on a sandy bench above the Yampa River, immediately upstream of Warm Springs Rapid — the most significant whitewater on the Yampa and one of the largest rapids in the Dinosaur National Monument river system. The camp occupies a flat above the rapid's horizon line, and from the downstream end you can hear the rapid and walk to scout it. Warm Springs Rapid was created in 1965 when a massive debris flow from Warm Springs Draw pushed house-sized boulders into the river channel, transforming what had been a minor riffle into a Class IV rapid with a horizon line, a massive hole, and a consequential run. The camp is the staging point — groups arrive in the afternoon, set up, and scout the rapid for the following morning's run. The canyon walls here are Weber Sandstone, the Yampa is the last undammed tributary of the Colorado River system, and the water is brown and muscular with snowmelt in the spring season.