Green River

About the River

The Green River begins in Wyoming's Wind River Range and flows nearly 730 miles south before joining the Colorado River deep inside Canyonlands National Park, at a point known simply as the Confluence. Flaming Gorge Dam, on the Utah-Wyoming border, controls flows through the first stretch below the reservoir, holding the tailwater at cold, remarkably consistent levels that support one of the West's most celebrated trout fisheries. Below the dam the river carves through Dinosaur National Monument, then the remote, roadless Desolation and Gray Canyons, before entering the calm final stretch through Canyonlands.

The character of the Green shifts dramatically along its length. The Flaming Gorge tailwater below the dam is Blue Ribbon trout water, floated as often for fishing as for scenery. Inside Dinosaur National Monument, the Gates of Lodore opens a permit whitewater run through sandstone canyon walls, meeting the Yampa River at Echo Park along the way. Desolation and Gray Canyons carry boaters through one of the longest roadless river corridors in the Lower 48. Below Mineral Bottom, Stillwater Canyon flattens into calm water through Canyonlands, ending at the Confluence, where most parties are picked up by jetboat shuttle or continue downstream into Cataract Canyon.

The gauge below Flaming Gorge Dam is the best read on releases through the upper river and Dinosaur National Monument; downstream gauges near Ouray and at the town of Green River pick up added flow from the Duchesne, Price, and San Rafael Rivers. Permits are required for Dinosaur National Monument (a Recreation.gov lottery with a December to January application window), for Desolation and Gray Canyons (a BLM lottery), and for Canyonlands National Park's backcountry river zone. Peak runoff arrives in late May and June; the dam-controlled upper river holds boatable flows well into fall.