ITINERARY.

The itinerary below represents a standard 7-day GOALS expedition in Lodore Canyon of the Green River. Some changes may occur.

Day 1. Travel to Dinosaur. Meet around 11am on day 1 at GOALS world headquarters in Evergreen, CO - please arrive with a belly full of lunch. We’ll drive about 6 hours to our campsite in Dinosaur National Monument, where we spend the night before our river launch. We’ll stretch our legs with a quick hike to the famous “Gates of Lodore” formation - named by Major John Wesley Powell on his Green River expedition in 1869. Following our hike - and maybe some frisbee in the campsite, we will begin the GOALS curriculum around our first evening campfire, then settle in for a good night’s sleep - wondering what lies downstream beyond those famous gates we can see from camp.

Day 2. Exciting day, inflated names. Today, we’ll enter the Canyon of Lodore, and become almost immediately mesmerized by the deep red hues of the sandstone walls in the upper section. Following our first small rapid, we’ll hike up to Winnie’s Grotto - the first of many hidden alcoves in Lodore. Back on the boats, we head toward “Upper Disaster” and “Lower Disaster” - rapids named by Powell and his men after experiencing great trouble and losing boats and supplies in these rapids. We’ll enjoy reading some of the excerpts written by Powell and his team in journals as we scout these rapids - and after successfully navigating them we will head toward our first campsite in the area of Pot Creek.

Day 3. Harp, Triplet, and Hell’s Half Mile. Day 3 in Lodore feels much like day 2 -rapids with scary names that turn out to be splashy and fun! Today, we’ll take on Harp Falls, Triplet, and Hell’s Half Mile - where Powell’s team again experienced a great deal of challenge. We’ll aim to camp tonight at one of the Rippling Brook campsites - affording us a beautiful afternoon hike up to an awe-inspiring overlook of the Green River and ending at a small waterfall where we can cool off from the afternoon heat.

Day 4. Confluence Day. Today, we’ll paddle through Echo Park to the confluence of the Green and the Yampa Rivers. The geology here will undergo a marked change - shifting from the reds upstream into lighter tans and even dark brown layers as we enter new geologic time periods. We’ll also observe several distinct fault lines as we paddle through Echo Park toward our campsite tonight at Jones Hole.

Day 5. An extraordinary hike and a short paddle. Much of day 5 will be spent on land - hiking up Jones Hole to Ely Creek falls - affectionately known among river runners as “butt dam falls”. One brave participant will stand under the falls while several of their friends use their backside to dam up the flow - standing up all at once to release a torrent of cold spring water down onto the person below! We’ll spend some time at the falls, then hike to another location not far away to observe and study a series of ancient pictographs created by Native American cultures on the canyon walls about 1000 years ago. Returning to the river, we’ll enjoy a late lunch, then float to our campground in Island Park. Since this is our last night together in the canyon, we’ll experience a short solo and compose a thank-you letter to the canyon - a GOALS tradition. One last campfire, then it’s off to sleep thinking about the rapids of Split Mountain Canyon tomorrow!

Day 6. Split Mountain Canyon! Today, we’ll paddle through Rainbow Park an toward the exciting culmination of a Lodore expedition in the whitewater of Split Mountain Canyon. The speed of the river increases as we enter Split Mountain, taking on Moonshine, SOB, Schoolboy, and Inglesby rapids - one right after the next. Following a successful run through Inglesby, we’ll pull over for one last riverside lunch with our guide team, then float down to the Split Mountain take-out ramp. (NEW for 2023). We’ll camp together one more night tonight - either at Dinosaur National Monument or along the route home, in order to avoid the long drive on the last day of our expedition.

Day 7. Travel day. Today, we’ll break camp and enjoy a laid-back breakfast, then head east - generally arriving back to Evergreen in the mid- to late afternoon.