About Rafting Moab
Rafting Moab is an independent guide to the rivers of southeastern Utah, the Colorado, the Green, and the San Juan. We cover the water itself: what each section is like, what it takes to run it, when it runs best, and who to go with if you'd rather someone else rowed.
Two Kinds of River Trips, Two Kinds of Readers
People arrive here from two very different directions, and we write for both.
You want a guided day on the water
Maybe you're visiting Moab for the parks and want to add a half-day float. Maybe you're bringing kids and need to know what's actually safe for a seven-year-old. You want a clear comparison of what's available, honest talk about which trip fits your group, and a straight answer on cost.
We'll tell you which section suits you, what the day looks like hour by hour, and where to book.
You need permits, flows, and logistics
You have your own boat, or you're going with people who do. You need to know how the Cataract Canyon permit window actually works, what Westwater looks like at 8,000 CFS versus 22,000, where the shuttle takes four hours instead of two, and which camps get claimed first.
That information exists, but it's scattered across agency PDFs, forum threads, and outdated blog posts. We're pulling it into one place.
These audiences overlap less than you'd think. A private boater planning a Desolation Canyon launch and a family choosing a Moab Daily float are solving completely different problems. We don't make either of you wade through the other's content.
Who's Behind This
Rafting Moab is written and maintained in Moab, Utah by people who run these rivers. We publish what we have checked, cite the agency or gauge it came from, and say plainly when something varies by season or water year.
We're not an outfitter and we don't run trips. We don't take bookings, own boats, or employ guides. That independence is the point, we can tell you a trip isn't worth the money, or that a section is beyond your skill level, because we're not the ones selling it to you.
Why a Separate Site
Rafting Moab is operated by Moabing Media, LLC, which also publishes Moabing.com, a general travel guide to the Moab area.
The split is deliberate. Moabing.com covers the whole trip, lodging, dining, Arches, Canyonlands, mountain biking, and everything else a visitor needs. It handles rafting the way a good travel guide should: enough to orient you, then out of the way.
This site goes considerably deeper than a travel guide ever should. Permit fee schedules, CFS thresholds, rapid-by-rapid descriptions, and shuttle mileage are not what someone planning a family vacation wants to read. They are exactly what someone launching at Sand Wash needs. Keeping them separate means neither reader is buried in the other's material.
If you're planning the rest of your Moab trip, where to sleep, where to eat, what to do on your non-river days, Moabing.com is the better resource, and it's ours.
How We Research
River information goes stale fast. Permit systems change, fee schedules get revised, launch windows shift, and flows vary enormously year to year. A surprising amount of what's published about Moab rafting is simply out of date, including permit rules that changed years ago and are still repeated across dozens of sites.
So we work from primary sources and say where our information comes from:
- Permits and regulations: the managing agency directly. The National Park Service for Canyonlands sections, the Bureau of Land Management for Westwater, Ruby-Horsethief, Labyrinth, and Desolation-Gray.
- Flows and water data:. USGS stream gauges, cited by gauge number so you can check them yourself.
- Trip details and conditions: time on the water, plus conversations with outfitters and boaters who run these sections regularly.
Where something varies by year or by water level, we say so instead of publishing a number that will be wrong next season. Where we're uncertain, we say that too.
Our full process, including how we evaluate outfitters, is on our recommendations methodology page.
How We Make Money
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you book through one, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. That revenue is what keeps this site free and unpaywalled.
What it doesn't do is buy coverage. No outfitter pays for placement, ranking, or a favorable write-up, and we say when a trip isn't worth it. Our affiliate disclosure explains the arrangements in full.
A fair amount of what we publish, permit walkthroughs, flow data, shuttle logistics, earns nothing at all. Private boaters don't book guided trips. We write it because it's the information the river community actually needs, and because a resource that only covers what it can sell isn't much of a resource.
Corrections
If we've got something wrong, tell us. River information carries real consequences, and a stale permit deadline or a wrong flow number can cost someone a trip or worse. We correct errors quickly and note significant changes on the page.
Reach us at info@moabing.com.
Whitewater is genuinely dangerous. People are injured and killed on these rivers, including on sections described as beginner-friendly. Nothing on this site substitutes for training, experience, appropriate equipment, and honest assessment of your own abilities and those of everyone in your group. Conditions change without warning. If you're unsure, go with a professional outfitter.
Contact
- info@moabing.com
- Location
- Moab, Utah 84532
- Published by
- Moabing Media, LLC
More ways to get in touch, including for outfitters and correction requests, on our contact page.
Last reviewed: July 2026