Wander the West

Whitewater Rafting in Moab, Utah?

	Whitewater Rafting in Moab, Utah?

April 2006

That’s right! Moab, while well known for its world class Mountain Biking and rock climbing, has other things to offer.

I was recently on a mountain biking road trip with a couple of friends (aka: away from wife vacation) for 10 days. The bulk of our trip was spent riding the legendary trails in and around Moab. But a guy can only handle so much saddle time and we were looking for a break from the intense trail riding. My brother just happened to be in the area at the same time and he had brought along his 13 foot raft and 2 inflatable kayaks (IKs). He had planned a day trip on the Colorado River and invited us to join.

Now I have to be honest and say that the trip was not a ‘whitewater’ extravaganza. It was actually more of a float. This is a function of the relatively few number of rapids, (only 13), and the fact that the water was running fairly high and was flushing even these out. But what a beautiful trip. The put-in is about 25 miles upriver from Moab and you can float just about any distance back down that you want. We did 13 miles. The river flows swiftly through the impressive canyons of the gorge. The red/brown sandstone rises up from the river 400 feet at some points. This is accompanied by amazing rounded pinnacles of rock and sand that seem to appear one after another along the float.

Don’t get me wrong, there is some white water here that demands some attention, but nothing over a class III. It’s perfect for IKs and we spent quite a bit of time in these throughout the day.

The next time you are in Moab I recommend you ride your mountain bike until you fall over. But on a hot day mid-trip a peaceful float down the Colorado can’t be beat. There are plenty of outfitters in Moab and shuttles can be arranged as well.

Float time: 3 1/2hrs – 5hrs.

Whitewater Rafting in Moab Utah Photo Gallery

- Eric Davis