Utah man dies in rafting accident at Dinosaur National Monument

Boaters on the Green River in the Canyon of Lodore near Dinosaur National Park (Photo: National Park Service)

DENVER (KDVR) — The body of a 50-year-old man was recovered Thursday following a rafting accident on the Green River in Dinosaur National Monument.

The man’s identity cannot be determined until the Moffat County Coroner’s Office has notified family members.

According to the National Park Service, staff were notified around 4 p.m. Thursday that a boat was stuck against a rock in the Hells Half Mile rapids. One person in the group was missing and was believed to be trapped under the raft.

The raft was eventually secured and untied, but memorial staff reported that the person became dislodged, lost his life jacket and became unresponsive, drifting downstream.

At approximately 7:45 a.m. Friday, Adrift, a commercial rafting company, notified its employees that they had located and secured the victim’s body approximately 10 river miles downstream from the accident scene. Monument employees, Adrift guides and the Classic Air Medical helicopter crew transported the body to the Moffat County Coroner’s Office.

The park straddles the Utah-Colorado border in the Yampa River Canyon region. Hells Half Mile is classified as a Class III/IV rapid in the Canyon of Lodore, which is located in the Colorado portion of the monument.

According to the NPS, the river’s flow rate averaged 4,700 cubic feet per second from June 25 to 28, including additional water from a discharge point at Flaming Gorge Dam. The monument is best known for its dinosaur quarry, according to the NPS, but whitewater rafters also travel the world to ride the rapids of Dinosaur National Monument.