Rafting the Green and Yampa through Dinosaur needs a permit

The Green and Yampa rivers carve some of the best-known whitewater canyons in the West, and the stretch through Dinosaur National Monument is a bucket-list float for many boaters. The two rivers meet at Echo Park deep inside the monument, and trips run for days through canyon walls with no road access.

Because these are wild, remote canyons, you cannot just launch on your own whenever you like. The National Park Service manages multi-day private (non-commercial) river trips with a permit system. The number of launches is limited to protect the canyon and spread out use, and the private permits are usually handed out through a lottery you apply for well ahead of time. If you would rather not run the lottery, licensed outfitters offer guided trips under their own permits.

This matters even if you are new to the area: the Yampa is one of the few large rivers in the region that still runs mostly undammed, so its flows rise and fall a lot with the season’s snowmelt. That affects when trips can run and how hard the water is.

If you are dreaming of a Green or Yampa river trip, start with the National Park Service river-permit pages for Dinosaur National Monument for current application windows, rules, and how the lottery works.