*Who am I?
I am a river lover! My name is Kassie Robbins, I am 38 years old. I am married and
have three young children. My two boys are ages 9 and 7, and my daughter is 4. I have
been a whitewater raft guide since I was about 20 years old. I started guiding in
southern Utah on the Colorado River and the Green River. My first experience with
seeing river guides was on the Green River Gates of Lodore at a very young age, maybe 11. We
were taking a private family river trip down that section of the Green River through the heart of Dinosaur National Monument. The Hatch
River Expeditions crew was camping at Jones Hole. I saw those boats and knew then
that I wanted to become a river guide. Coming from a family of river runners I had no
idea I would land here. I had intentions of making it into the Grand Canyon. However, I
find this place to be as serene and unique as any river I have traversed and that is why I
keep coming back. *Why I choose to guide here?
I choose Dinosaur National Monument as a place to guide for several reasons. Not only is it one of the best places for white water rafting in Colorado or river rafting in Utah but it is my backyard. One of the biggest reasons of those being that I get to be home regularly with my kiddos. They get to see mom in
action which is really cool. I get to embrace the beauty that surrounds me year-round.
Being able to take advantage of the monument and the rivers flowing through it is such
a huge bonus to my work. Sharing my love for the area is something that is within me. I
grew up rafting these canyons from an early age. We would run through Split Mountain
(the last day of a multi-day for both the Yampa River and Gates of Lodore) camping at the takeout,
sitting around a campfire, laughing and roasting marshmallows and sleeping in a tent I
have fond memories of this place and I seriously love that I get to share it with so many
people, but especially MY little people. *Why I love working for a locally owned company in my Hometown?
Can we all say the word connection? Relationships are built on connections. I build
relationships on my trips and some of them go on forever. I still connect with some
ladies I took down the river in my first few years of guiding. So, to say that building a
lasting relationship with the owners of Dinosaur River Expeditions is of value to me, is
an understatement. They are like family. They truly care about me, my family, the team
of guides that work for them. I have had many jobs and opportunities to work for
various employers and can honestly say that Jen and Tyler Callantine are literally some
of the best out there. They bring a level of professionalism and empathy to the
workplace. People work hard for people they respect. They have given me a gift of
being able to work part-time in between being a Mom. They understand the importance
of family! I also love the feeling of being able to give back to a small family owned and
operated company. *What are some of the hidden gems of the area?
Being able to work in and around Vernal, UT, I have learned about many of the neat
places that exist. Some of the cool places to see are actually outside of the monument.
Being able to explore the area throughout the last 15 years and to find out I still have
more to see. It seems that if you are looking you can find a Gem just about anywhere if
you are willing to explore. Whether you like fishing, camping, hiking, sightseeing or
anything else that requires you to get outside, this place has a lot to offer an avid outdoors person. When you take the opportunity to come run a river trip with me and
the crew, we would love to share some of these places with you.
Through all the hardships of operating a small business during this COVID-19 pandemic there have been a few shining lights. One that has helped many of Utah’s small business owners continue to operate and keep their door open has been the “Shop Local In Utah” grant. There have been a lot of excellent grants and funding opportunities that have become available through these ever changing times but this particular grant focuses on Utah’s locally owned and operated businesses. The Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development developed and offered this particular grant for local Utah businesses who operate on the mom and pop scale keeping their monies in their communities local economy.
We were fortunate to receive one of these grants. Through our partnership with the State of Utah we have been able to offer a deep discount on several of our Green River Gates of Lodore trips. We selected three specific dates June 25th, July 14th and August 28th of the 2021 summer season for a four day Gates of Lodore trip with an incredible pricing of $669.00 per person. We will be able to offer this deal until November 20th, 2020. This is a discount we have not been able to offer in quite some time and may not be able to offer again. Visit our Latest Deals Page for more information.
Shopping local is a big deal to us, particularly in rural Utah where every dollar spent at a local business is going to help sustain the regions economy. As you look at booking an adventure vacation really think about the benefits of shopping local and supporting those small Utah businesses along your travels journey. I know many small business are providing incredible discounts and offers on there goods and services. Check out the pricing our friends at Moab Gear Trader have been able to provide in account of receiving this grant.
Thank you to the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development for providing such a great opportunity for us to provide our guests with an amazing river rafting vacation at such an incredible price. We look forward to seeing you on the river.
Each raft trip we guide along the Green and Yampa Rivers are unique and special in their own way. Whether this be the great people that you meet, the animals you see, scenery, rapids or any number of things along the way each trip is truly special. One trip that stood out for me during the 2019 summer season was a film trip with Visit Utah. Visit Utah is the state of Utah’s travel and tourism marketing department. Visit Utah reached out to us to help guide and host a film trip with the sole purpose of getting high quality video and photography to market Dinosaur National Monument and river rafting along the Green River Gates of Lodore. Visit Utah is promoting lesser known areas of Utah to tourists looking to see the spectacular sights we have here. They are also looking to promote local guide and outfitters in these lesser known areas. As Vernal, Utah’s only locally owned and operated outfitter we were the chosen company. The end results of this co op after six months of editing and refining the video and photos is nothing less than stunning and world class. Visit Utah and there team did a fantastic job of capturing the essence of Dinosaur Monument and what it maybe like to take a river rafting trip along the route of the Green River. This section of the Green River through the Gates of Lodore canyon begins its journey in Colorado’s Brown Park region. With that said most commercial rafting trips begin and end their adventures in Vernal, Utah.
The trip started out as usual with a pre trip meeting at our Vernal, Utah office meeting the guests and film crew, getting them oriented as to what to expect the next four days and providing them with dry bags for day gear and camp time gear. This meeting also provided us an opportunity to learn about what the KNHO film crew would need from us to successfully accomplish their vision while traversing the river canyon. We learned a lot at this meeting and were able to prepare with adequate dry boxes and storage systems for the multitude of cameras, laptops, chargers, solar panels and assorted gear that was required to obtain the high quality footage they took.
The guests were an incredible family that were full of life and excitement wanting to experience as much of the river trip as possible. Nushin (mom) and her three children Layla, Noah and Eesa were chosen from an online audition process to be the focus family in the final film. This family was a great choice, their sense of adventure lent itself perfectly to all the possibilities found on a multi day rafting trip. Each person was excited to hike, swim, try their hand at inflatable kayaks or stand up paddle boarding. Which all lined up perfectly with the story that the producer had envisioned for the films story line. Nushin followed up after the four day trip with a great write up of her and her families experience visiting Dinosaur National Monument and going on their first big river rafting excursion.
The film crew was a fun group of characters (in a good way, they all had awesome personalities) with some neat backgrounds in the film arts. Sandra Salvas was the trips producer and organized the components for the film crew. Mike Eldredge of KNHO was the films director and a camera man, Austin Balls was the second camera man and Tony Hagerdorn was the photographer. This crew like I mentioned before knew their stuff. The equipment they brought along was Hollywood quality filming gear, single lenses that cost upwards of $10,000.00, super powerful laptops to download each days footage, really cool solar powered generator from Utah’s own Goal Zero. We knew they were good, because we had the opportunity to view previous works on Utah adventures where they captured the essence of mountain biking the Bears Ear National Monument area, horse back riding in Monument Valley, snow skiing the Wasatch Mountain range. All of the film we viewed in advance was beautifully done.
As always, we the crew departed Vernal in the early dark am hours for Brown’s Park Colorado where we would start our four day journey. After a 2 hour drive we arrived at the Gates of Lodore put in where we unloaded the rig truck and trailer load of gear and began preparing the rafts for the guests and film crew to arrive. This process is not quick and can be quite laborious. It takes a lot of gear and the gear can be heavy, cumbersome to move around on a sandy beach and awkward. This part of the trip has to occur to make all the magic happen, without fully rigged rafts it is tough to take a rafting trip. When all the heavy lifting is done there is always a little downtime between having the rafts ready and when the guests arrive. This is guide time where they get to take care of themselves. Brushing teeth, putting on sunscreen, finishing coffee and breakfast the basics that keep them healthy and functioning well. Guide time becomes very valuable as the summer progresses and the wear and tear of sun, sand and water take their toll on a body.
Once the guests arrive everything goes fairly quick from loading the last bits of gear to securing life jackets and safety speech. You are off the van and on to a river adventure in a small whirlwind of time. This is where for me as a guide of 25 years, the trip took a turn and became really interesting. The interesting turn was the artistic aspect that was brought along by the film crew. As an artist and art teacher it was fascinating to work with the crew in setting up the perfect shots, finding the vantage point that really highlighted the scenery and wilderness found in Dinosaur National Monument. These guys are pro’s, their work is all over Hollywood, the internet, You Tube channels with millions of views. They knew what type of imagery they wanted and were meticulous in obtaining it. The film crew had their own boat that was able to leap frog the rafts and set up in advance to take video and photos. At times the film boat would be an hour or so ahead of us while the film crew would take hikes up above the canyon floor. Sometimes hiking 500 vertical feet or so above us to get some of the most incredible aerial views I have ever seen of Lodore Canyon. This process became rather quick and seamless as we all became a tight crew working on this film project together.
Throughout the filming process, Sandra and her crew amazed us constantly with high tech and low tech camera gear. All the while they were excellent at answering our layman questions as to what this equipment was and why they chose different cameras, lenses or apparatus for particular shots. The tools that really amazed me were all of the Go Pro sports camera accessories. I have several Go Pro cameras and dabble with taking video and photos with some success. The accessories they brought along were game changers in taking action footage. A camera mount you hold in your teeth, this one gets perfect point of view video. A camera housing that takes perfect video at the water level. This half round contraption allowed the camera to have clear focus under and above the water at the same time. All cool items that showed their use when the video was edited out and the awesome shots that they got using these cool tools.
Overall the filming trip had great weather, water levels were perfect, group dynamics were spot on and it was wonderful experience for all of us. The end results are beautiful photographs and extremely high quality video that is fun to watch. After six months of waiting patiently to see the end product we could not be more proud of the whole teams collaboration to create a wonderful artistic work. Thank you must go out to the entire Visit Utah team and Nushin and her family from the Dinosaur River Expeditions crew.
So, you like to get outside and stay active, but it isn’t always easy to make time? You may live and work in a city, meanwhile your mind drifts towards the freedom of the hills or the grand solitude of the desert. If you are a 9 to 5 work a day type like so many others, then how will you maximize your precious time off? You are in the company of weekend warriors and you will better enjoy your time of battle with a little preparation and planning. Whether you are heading off for a quick weekend of fly fishing on Utah’s world famous Green River or a mountain biking adventure on Vernal Utah’s amazing single track being prepared is a key component of a great vacation.
To me the first and most important piece of preparation that you can do for yourself is to know yourself. Be realistic with your goals and be honest with yourself about your limitations. Ask yourself what you hope to get out of your adventure time, knowing that you will have to be and want to be a functioning human being after the outing is over. Now that you have an understanding with yourself, you can plan a fitting venture and maximize your fun.
Think about the physical requirements of your desired activities. This goes back to knowing yourself but can also fit into extended or ongoing preparations. If you are planning a cross country bike tour, then you should be putting in some miles in the saddle during the weeks before your big ride. If you are going on a river trip or drive where there will be opportunities to do hikes, long or short, then you should be doing some walking or, better yet, hiking to get into shape. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Pace yourself, walk consciously. You can’t summit the mountain until you have walked through the foothills.
You’re feeling good and have a rough idea of what you are ready to tackle, now it’s time to fill in the gaps and make your travel itinerary. No matter what your activity, there are numerous resources out there to help you plan. Guidebooks and maps are still my favorite but there are great smartphone apps, blogs, discussion groups and websites that provide great planning ideas. In many places and with many activities you can hire a guide service, which takes a lot of pressure off you to know everything. It is still a good idea to know something, so you know what you are in for. Sometime’s it is best to leave your ego intact and hire that local guide service they have the knowledge, skills and equipment to assure your trip is a success.
Time to dig into your gear closet or garage. If you are like me this part gets you excited, like walking into a room filled with old friends. Don’t save this until the last minute unless you are sure your equipment is accounted for and in good working order. Leave yourself enough time to make that unplanned run to the sporting goods stores or hardware store to repair the broken bits. One of our favorite gear shops is Moab Gear Trader’s the owner and staff love outdoor adventure and recreation. There are few things worse than getting out to the field and realizing that something important is missing. You can mitigate that problem by writing lists. Write out your lists of gear and meals and check the items off as you pack. You will be less likely to forget something and there is a certain sense of accomplishment that comes from checking things off. For most outdoor activities you should be able to find someone else’s checklist online to give you a starting point for organizing your gear.
While in the thick of your adventure, pace yourself. Don’t be so goal oriented that you risk causing injury to yourself or your travel companions. Physical fatigue is a good way to take a bad step or make some bad judgement call that could ruin your holiday or have worse consequences. Listen to your body and rest when you need to. Drink plenty of water and eat when you need energy. These things seem basic, but it is so easy to forget to stop and take care of yourself. If you don’t do it, who will? These maintenance breaks are good for the mind and soul as well as the body. Pause to enjoy the place you are standing and to feel the calming rhythm of nature.
When all is done and you’ve returned home satisfied and safe, do a couple of things to close the adventure and prepare for the next. Take some notes or write in an adventure journal about what you’ve accomplished. What worked? what didn’t? what would you do different or the same next time? Did you see another nearby canyon that you’d like to explore next time? Did you get some advice from fellow travelers? These notes, like the lists from before, can be very useful tools and enjoyable to reflect on later.
With your memories stored and organized, take the time to clean and organize your gear. It is satisfying to wash off the dirt that marks a good trip into the wilds. It is gratifying to see your well used equipment clean and in good working order. It will make your life so much easier to pack for the next rally if everything is organized and ready to go.
The adventurous life of a weekend warrior may not be measured by vast quantities but with a little work it will be by high quality. May you fight the good fight and find the balance in life that you desire.
