The Best Sand is on the Green River Rafting

Reed and I went White Water Rafting on the Green River. It is one of my very favorite things to do. I grew up white water rafting, even multiple day trips and I am so glad my dad invited us to do this one day trip. The kids got to spend the day with grandma and had a great time being spoiled.

On the way to Rainbow Park Boat Ramp there are the McKee Petroglyphs. These petroglyphs were done by the freemont indians and the character you see in the middle with the spiral shield is the one you see on a lot of the Dinosaur National Park postcards. They are amazing to see in person.

Jordan(my baby brother...although he is a "little" bit taller than me) and I were goofing off as we were hiking along the petroglyphs. The picture with Jordan striking a pose, he is actually on the edge of a huge boulder with a long drop-off but, you can't see that in the picture. Jordan, you make me laugh!! Love ya!!

The group getting their river rafts ready and everything strapped down. The kids on the other raft spent their time catching crawdads.  Everyone was excited to run the river!!

This is proper river raft attire: LifeJacket, Swimsuit, Shorts and of course painted toe nails with river sandals. Although Reed would disagree with me about the painted toe nails....apparently you don't HAVE to have them but, I think they are cute!

Reed and I ready to go white water rafting!

As soon as you get on the river, you start into the canyon. The rock formations are spectaular and can only be seen while floating the river.

Reed ready to get wet. My dad was the oarsman and he made sure that everyone got drenched at least a few times although Jordan got more than his fair share....he was in the very front of the raft.

Class 3 Rapids

Because Jordan was in the front of the raft and I was right behind him, he got his picture taken a lot. So, he started making faces at me. So, I told him I was going to post all the picture of his many faces so....here's to you Jordan. I think they are hilarious!

Jordan was showing us what it would look like to fall out of the boat. We should have pushed him the rest of the way because when we were able to get out and float he said it was too cold and wouldn't float with me. Big Baby, at least I got him to jump off the boulder later on. That was fun!

The sand is one of the best parts of the green. It's so warm when you stop for lunch and is great to put your feet in the sand to warm up your toes. At one point, we got ahead of the group so we pulled off to let them catch up and Jordan jumped out and wrote passerby's a note. So, if you saw this...it was us and we say...HEY!!

At lunch, we took advantage of the sand and buried Jordan in the sand. We made him into a mermaid and then we were joking with him when his toes came out of the sand that "Ariel, you have legs, human legs!"

Then my husband and brother-in-law got into the action and came with a bucket of water to get Jordan.

He had sand EVERYWHERE!! Thanks Jordan, you were a good sport!

The rafts pulled up on the beach for lunch.

Just to show you how tall the canyon can be at times, I took a picture of the other raft. The scenery is beautiful and the canyon walls can be thousand feet tall at times!

I gave Jordan the camera so he could take a picture of us in the raft. We all were having a really good time! It's the best to be river rafting....it really is SO much fun!

I just love the scenery. The canyon walls were SO tall at times that it really made you feel small.

After lunch, there is a naturally occuring hot springs on the second half way down the split mountain run. It is such a difference compared to the cool river. It is so warm. Usually there is a frog that lives in the hot springs but, we didn't see it this time.

Adrienne and Justin were in the back of the boat but, my dad made sure that they got really wet too!

We had to bail a lot of water out of the raft and we all definitely got wet! This is a picture of the bottom of the boat after a rapid....just a little water!! Hee Hee

After the last classified rapid, we were able to jump out and float the river for a while. Only two of us from our raft and a few from the other boats wanted to float. It was pretty cold!

At lunch, the poulson's were telling us about this mushroom shaped rock that had a huge eddie behind it and you could pull in and use the raft to climb up on the rock then jump off. We all had a really good time jumping off the rock. It was scary the first time but was SO fun doing it again and again!!

Reed jumping off the boulder!

This picture was taken right before Adrienne starting taking a video. Jordan started the jump sequence. As soon as the person in front of you surfaced, the next would jump. It was a really fun video. It was a little hard to take the video because the raft kept moving with the current.

This is Jordan's hair style after jumpin' off the boulder. Stylin'!!

This is what the final stretch of the split mountain run looks like. It's pretty flat water with drops over beds of river rocks. This is split mountain. Obviously it's named for the shape and that the river "split" the mountain in  half.

This is us at the split mountain boat ramp getting the gear back into the trucks. Then we stopped at my dad's national park store, which is located at the park entrance. He just moved to this building from in town in the last year and everyone is excited when the dinosaur rock face will be reopened next year. Then they can move back over there and keep the store with the dinosaur at the entrance too.

The park service is using part of the building currently until the new structure is completed. It was fun to see some of the displays. I had to take a picture of the petroglyph replica that you can buy. I love that we got to see it in person. Too cool!

This is the famous long neck dinosaur outside the store. If you been to Dinosaur National Monument, you've seen this dinosaur.

This is the view from the back deck of the store. Pretty great view of Split Mountain!

Thanks Dad for inviting us for another memorable white water rafting trip down the split mountain run!!