The most popular destination for Utah whitewater rafting is on the Colorado River near Moab, Utah. Moab is surrounded by a natural wonderland with Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park just minutes away. It truly is world renown, drawing summer tourists from all over the world. Rafting (and scenery) in Utah is most definitely unique! Moab is often referred to as "The Adventure Capital of the West" with an abundance of recreational activities from mountain biking, zip lining, Hummer safaris, hiking, Jeeping, and... the list goes on!
The eclectic town of Moab is the hub, or starting/ending point, for most rafting trips in Utah, including Desolation Canyon on the Green River offering beginner to intermediate rafters 60+ rapids and a fascinating canyon which is deeper than the Grand Canyon. Desolation Canyon is one of the world's top three kid and family friendly whitewater rafting trips. It's hardly desolate with its sandy beaches, sparkling side streams, shady stands of Cottonwood trees and abundant wildlife. A century ago, the picture-perfect surroundings of the Green River was a hiding place for Butch Cassidy and his gang of bank robbers. Further upstream on the Green River are some day trips from Flaming Gorge dam through the Gates of Lodore, through Split Mountain and Dinosaur National Monument. Those are based out of Vernal, Utah in the northeastern corner of the state.
In Moab, you'll find day trips down Westwater Canyon (named “The West’s Best Short Whitewater Trip” by National Geographic Adventurer magazine. Westwater Canyon has a few Class IV and even a V rapid in Skull Rapid. Further downstream the canyon gives way to wide open red rock spires in Castle Valley. The river widens for what is known by locals as “The Daily” or “Daily Stretch” of the Colorado. This is where thousands come each summer to splash in iconic southwestern scenery on Class II and III rapids. Passing the town of Moab and though the gap of cliffs known as “The Portal” the Colorado River carves into Canyonlands National Park and where it meets with the Green River (doubling in volume) the Colorado River plunges hard into Cataract Canyon. The notorious home of the largest whitewater rapids in North America during springtime peak flows. These monstrous “Big Drops”, as they are known, only seem to get bigger the more water you pour over them. It only gets that monstrous about every ten years or so, while the rest of the time Cataract is no easy float through class IV rapids - fun any time during the summer flows. From Cataract Canyon the river meets Lake Powell and then goes on into Grand Canyon National Park just across the Utah border into Arizona.
Utah is the undisputed birthplace of the modern-day commercial river rafting industry. You can count the 1869 Powell Expedition (the first “purposely down-river” attempt at river and canyon exploration). Or maybe you can count Vernal, Utah native Nathaniel Galloway who, just a few decades after Powell, invented the best whitewater row boats of their time, including the Galloway technique for rowing them - used by every modern-day river rafter today. Or you can count another Vernal native, Bus Hatch and the “Dusty Dozen” who floated any wooden rafts they could find down the river and around the bend just for the heck of it. By 1929 Bus had enough “takers” that he started the world’s first commercial river running company. (https://www.greenriverrafting.com/history/). By the late 1930’s another Utah native was taking boats down the San Juan river, and even launched the first commercial descents down the Grand Canyon with “Mexican Hat Expeditions”.
While Moab, Utah has become the de-facto capital of river rafting adventures in Utah, it was relatively untouched by the early days of river rafting. Even Powell's 1869 Expedition floated far downstream from the Spanish Valley where Moab was settled. They descended down the Green River to the confluence with the Colorado River (then known as the Grand River).
Western River Expeditions created Moab Adventure Center to focus on the myriad day trips and adventures in Moab, Utah. Western River is the tour operator for river rafting in Moab, Utah as well as in Grand Canyon.
