Here we are, set to go out on our third river trip, this time on the Yampa and Green Rivers. Yet again, we’ll be traveling with our favorite boatman, Bruce Keller, as well as river friends Steve “Sarge” Alt and “First Light” Frank Kozyn. We first met all three on our Colorado River adventure in 2010, and Bruce has since then also been our guide on the Alsek in Alaska. Our put-in today is at Deerlodge Park in Colorado on the eastern edge of Dinosaur National Monument. Unlike our previous multi-week trips, this “little” sojourn will only be five days long. At Deerlodge Park, we pack up our dry bags, find a personal flotation device that appeals to us, go through a safety talk, and before we know it, it’s time to get to the business at hand.

The brochure promised us plenty of sunshine, flush toilets, and feather beds. So far, our guides have certainly delivered on the first promise; we could not have wished for better weather. Back at the put-in, the terrain was relatively flat and for a moment did not portend that within an hour we’d be entering canyons, but here they are, and with their arrival, a rush of intrigue comes with this change in landscape.

The passage narrows, and it starts to feel as if civilization moves further away from us. While not as expansive as the Alsek and not as deep and broad as the Grand Canyon, the intimacy of the Yampa here in Dinosaur National Monument is already allowing me to feel like this place is of a size that I can take in and almost comprehend.

With the water getting a little choppier, the sense of being somewhere wild grows within. The adventure of the trip starts to take hold.

Geological details surround us. This is about the time I started to dream of a trip without a schedule where we could pull up to the cliffside and examine the sandstone, look for fossils, or just hang out and bask in the location we are so lucky to be experiencing.

It’s just past midday, and we’ll pull into our first camp early to give us plenty of time to set up our tents, build out the kitchen, do some exploring, or just chill out and enjoy the moment.

Our tent is up in minutes, and soon, we are out examining what’s to be found in our new neighborhood. Turns out there’s this gang of lichen hanging out, and while it looks soft and fluffy, looks can be deceiving. We also found a good amount of cacti giving us the stink eye, but no dinosaurs yet…..hmmm, I wonder if any of the other guests could be considered one?

That’s Sarge on the left and First Light Frank on the right; they are the official dishwashers on this trip down the Yampa. I just dare you to try to come between these two former Marines and their dishes. They even travel with their own gloves.

With the rafts tucked away for the night and our bellies full, the only thing left to do was sit around a fire and talk. Like all first days out on a river, this one came with most everyone cutting out early and catching up on the sleep they’d been deprived of over the previous couple of travel days as we converged on Vernal, Utah, where the trip first organized before heading to our put-in this morning. It’s great to be out here on a river again, wondering what big adventure awaits us around the next corner.