Trips

Exciting whitewater, National Park Vistas, star-filled night skies and a sense of wonder, adventure and accomplishment come together in Cataract Canyon on the Colorado River.

River Experience

We start our journey in the serene canyons above the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers.  Our Hiking Adventures in Stillwater Canyon on the Green River will launch at the Mineral Bottom Boat Ramp.  All other Cataract Canyon rafting trips will launch at the Potash Boat Ramp and begin their journey in Meander Canyon. Both canyons are about 50 miles long and have no rapids above the confluence. That doesn’t mean they should be skipped though! There are many treasures to be found in these beautiful, quiet canyons.

Once we reach the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers, we enter the heart of Canyonlands National Park and Cataract Canyon itself. For the next 17 miles the river drops quickly and we experience the rapids that have made this canyon famous!  Rapids with features named Capsize, Satan’s Gut and Little Niagara, the rapids in Cataract Canyon, rated up to Class V are exhilarating.  But that isn’t all!  Past rapids are re-emerging as the river reclaims its channel from sediment dropped when Lake Powell pooled much higher than it does now.

This journey isn’t just about the whitewater, though.  We believe that the true destination is the journey, and we take time to really enjoy this one.  We stop along the way to hike and explore in the canyon, visiting sites where ancient peoples left their mark in structures or pictographs, where wind and water carved away sand and stone, and where ancient trees became something that would lay for millennia.

Camp Scene

We’ll pull into camp each afternoon and everyone will work together to unload the boats.  Then as guests set up their tents, the guides will set up the “bathroom”, kitchen and “living room” areas.  We provide spacious four-person tents for doubles and three-person tents for solo travelers.  We also provide clean and comfortable sleeping bags and pads for each guest.  For those who wish to be a little further off the ground, we offer the option of renting a cot for a nominal fee.

The guides will prepare the evening meal while guests are free to relax with a cool drink, play beach games like horseshoes, bocce or Kübb, relax on the beach, play in the water, or go for a short hike.  Our open air “bathrooms” are a lot less primitive than people think!  We set them up in as private an area as possible, and use a “key” system to give everyone privacy. Our toilets don’t have four walls or flush handles, but they do have seats and amazing views!

In the morning, as the canyon walls begin to glow with the first rays of the sun, the guides will wake the camp with the smells of coffee brewing and a bellowed “COFFEEEE!” that can be heard up and down the canyon.  Everyone packs up their gear and breaks camp while the guides prepare breakfast.  After a delicious breakfast, the boats are loaded with all the gear and we continue our journey downstream.

Transportation

There is a fenced and gated yard at the Sheri Griffith Expeditions office where you can leave your vehicle, and we have a secure place for your valuables while you are on the river. We provide transportation on the morning of departure from our office in Moab to the put-in.  For the Hiking trips (Stillwater Canyon) we will drive about 1.5 hours to the Mineral Bottom Boat Ramp.  For all other Cataract Canyon trips we will drive about 45 minutes to the Potash Boat Ramp.

After the rafting trip, most* of our guests fly back to the Moab airport on a scenic flight over the canyons that they have just rafted down.  We drive everyone back into Moab (about 30 minutes) to the Sheri Griffith Expeditions Office.

*Some guests prefer to have their vehicle shuttled to the take-out at Lake Powell, or to ride back to Moab in a van instead of taking the flight.  Please contact our office for these options.