Yampa River
The Yampa is the last major free-flowing tributary of the Colorado River. No dam regulates it. No reservoir stores it. The snowmelt comes off the Park Range and the Flat Tops, fills the channel, and runs through Dinosaur National Monument the way every river in the West used to run before the Bureau of Reclamation rebuilt the hydrology of the continent. That fact alone makes this trip significant — but the canyon delivers on it. Seventy-two miles from Deerlodge Park to Split Mountain, crossing from the Yampa into the Green at Echo Park, through Whirlpool Canyon and the Split Mountain Gorge, with Warm Springs producing one of the most feared rapids in the Colorado system and the whole corridor carrying the weight of the Echo Park Dam fight that saved it. This is the complete Dinosaur traverse. It is the trip that the conservation movement made possible, through the canyon system they chose to protect instead of Glen Canyon.
Choose your route
-
Deerlodge Park to Split Mountain standard line
Deerlodge Park Boat Ramp → Split Mountain Boat Ramp
- Miles
- 72
- Days
- 6–10
- Sections
- 5
The full traverse: forty-six miles down the Yampa, then the Green through Whirlpool Canyon and Split Mountain.
Permits Yampa Canyon permit · lottery · Rainbow Park permit
-
Deerlodge Park to Echo Park
Deerlodge Park Boat Ramp → Echo Park Boat Ramp
- Miles
- 46
- Days
- 4–6
- Sections
- 1
Takes out at Echo Park where the Yampa meets the Green — the Yampa miles only.
Permit Yampa Canyon permit · lottery
Spring snowmelt drives the classic high-water experience. Low water in late summer exposes more rock and reduces the drama of major rapids.
- Distance
- 72 miles
- Typical days
- 7
The geography underneath
One recognizable trip, 5 named river sections across 2 rivers. The trip has one name; the river carries you through more geography than that name reveals.
- Yampa Canyon 46 mi the journey
- Whirlpool Canyon 8 mi approach
- Island Park 8 mi approach
- Rainbow Park 7 mi approach
- Split Mountain 8.3 mi approach
The journey
What the water is doing
Flow knowledge is owned by the Yampa Canyon section record — full flow spectrum and history there.
Access
- Put-in
- Deerlodge Park Boat Ramp
- Take-out
- Split Mountain Boat Ramp
- Distance
- 46 miles
- Typical days
- 5
The journey
What the water is doing
Flow knowledge is owned by the Yampa Canyon section record — full flow spectrum and history there.
Access
- Put-in
- Deerlodge Park Boat Ramp
- Take-out
- Echo Park Boat Ramp