Yampa to Dinosaur

The map shows the general route starting on the Yampa river to the east traveling west to the confluence with the Green river and then taking out at the Dinosaur boat ramp. The waypoints north are on the Green river and not traveled on this float.Participants were Jim Ledbetter, Bill Rivers, Lance Masoner, Michael Buell, Eric Fink, Suzanne Opfer, Katie Larue, and Pete Betters.

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20210628

First day on the Yampa. We put in a Deer Lodge at 9:15AM. I’d managed to load the boat so that only the camera/lunch bag was on the outside clipped in front of me. The ramp into the river was steep and the water very silty making me a little nervous about how to enter the boat. I elected to sit down into the boat and put the skirt on as the current took me sluggishly away. Very soon I found myself running aground in the shallow water. That eased the anxiety as I realized I could stand in the river in needed. We left the broad river plane for the narrow canyon soon after our launch. We floated lazily dodging shallow sandbars and rocks as the days paddle progressed. Lunch was taken at the Anderson camp that shared the area with the Stubs cabin. The cabin was more a collapsed earthen structure with some timbers. It still houses an iron wood burning stove. A coral made of the local large pinyon pines looks more substantial than the diminutive cabin. The paddle after lunch introduced a little more excitement from the river with some minor rapids (at the 380cfs) and rock dodging. Tonight’s campsite on river left was marked by several tall frail ponderosas on river right. Pete, Micheal and I followed the ‘goat’ trail down river to afford us a look down upon Teepee camp and Teepee rapids. The wind blew with gusts and small dust devils as the sun dropped away pitching the camp into a shadow. There was light talk as people ate their dinners before folks meandered away for sleeping.

20210629

Awoke after a goodnight’s sleep. I stayed warm with pants, down jacket, and baclava on. The ants never bothered me contrary to Bill’s concern. No mosquitos to be had! Made a cup of coffee and ate some bell pepper and radishes for breakfast. We made it on the river by 8:30. The current moved faster than the previous day at about 3mph. We dodged slow moving rocks much of the time. A highlight was coming upon ten big horn sheep resting in tall grass on river right. They were oblivious to us until Suzanne approached and lingered too long for the elder bull. They slowly walked off up river. The sunlight glistening off their full curled horns was beautiful. After lunch we came upon several ewe’s and some young big horn sheep. Suzanne held back watching them for a considerable period. We negotiated the class ‘III’ raps called Big Joe. At this water level the primary move was either a left or right around the river center rock. The rapid was a casual opportunity to practice some Eddie outs. We saw one beaver that warned us twice to move on with it’s slap of the tail and a dive. That was just above our second night campsite at Harding Hole 1. Pete knew of and took us on a hike up the southeastern canyon trail with it’s switchbacks and a short walk down a dirt road to the lookout located just behind camp. The views up and down river were spectacular. I filtered some water from the small brook in the canyon we hiked up. We traveled 17.25 miles loosing about 300ft of elevation in 7:25 hours.

20210630

I was awakened by raindrops. That sent me scrambling to protect the items I wanted to keep dry. I decided that I’d just start packing for the day. The rain alarm fortuitously let witness a very fiery sunrise with the clouds set ablaze by the rising sun. I pumped about five liters of water for Jim and a couple for myself. We Pulled away from the bank about 8:35. The canyon was spectacular with shear sandstone cliffs reaching hundreds of feet above the river. This stretch was slower but less rocks were close to the surface making it easier at the low later level. Grand over hang was definitely grand. We stopped for lunch after passing Mantle Ranch. Then we hiked up to a Fremont Indian food storage alcove. From there Pete knew of some petroglyphs a short distance away. We visited those which included an elk, wolves, and big horn sheep. We passed Tiger rock. Pete said it would offer good luck for Warm Springs rapid if one kissed it. At the slow pace of the river I pulled along side the vertical cliff, slowed a bit, and kissed the rock. Pete said he did too. Our next stop was Warm Spring rapid. We spent a few minutes scouting and all agreed on the route through the rocks., Pete said it didn’t anything like it does at high water. There was no large hole at the bottom. Micheal led, but in the end it was very straight forward. No one had any trouble. We meet two women working for the BLM down around the next corner. The we’re collect samples on plant movement by the current. We arrived at our third camp of the trip shortly after that - Box Elder camp 4. At the low flows a beautiful sand bank was laid bare for the camping. It had been a long day with ten hours of paddling and hiking.

20210701

I fixed my cup of coffee where I slept and packed everything before looking for the others. They were lined up sitting on the beach looking down river chatting quietly. I joined them. Gradually everyone finished breakfast and started packing their boats. The two BLM ladies floated past in their Alpacka’s and we exchanged pleasantries. We followed shortly behind them onto the river. It was a leisurely pace on the Yampa. Eventually we caught up with the Ladies and Suzanne and Bill carried on long conversations as we floated. One of the ladies pulled a device for counting fish that had a rice grain size RF tagged inserted near their front fin. (Part of a study by CSU.) the confluence with the Green river came and went unnoticed by several of our group. We stopped shortly thereafter at Echo park. There were two young men sitting in the shade on the river hoping for a raft ride to Jones Hole where they planned to continue a hike north. We walked up the ride to Whispering cave and the onto the Fremont pectoglyphs before returning to the river for lunch. The wind started blowing upriver in earnest as we started out. The first two miles were hard. We crossed a major fault line clearly visible by the folded and broken rock beds and the older rocks along side the river. This section also offered more interesting rapids though none too challenging and mostly light fun at this water level. A commercial raft outfit with about six boats was at Jones Hole 1. We pulled up to Jones Hole 4 camp. After unloaded we hiked up to Butt Dam. We saw found some blooming orchids above the fall. We also visited the very bright pictographs in the area. After a quick play in Butt Dam falls we hikes back to camp sitting in the sand eating dinner and being entertained by a beaver (or two) and a diving Merganser.

20210702

This was the last day on the river. There were a number of easily negotiated rapds. . We arrived at the takeout at Dinosaur and checked in with the Rangers. Bill and I had dinner at Ray's Tavern in Green River a river rat's burger place to finish off the trip.