It's soon going to cost private river groups a bit more to go padding in Canyonlands National Park.

As of March 31 the park will assess a $20 per person per trip cost recovery fee for both flat water and white water trips on the Green and Colorado rivers. That fee will be in addition to the existing reservation fees of $20 per permit for flat water trips and $30 per permit for white water trips.  

The new fee, park officials note, is only appropriate to be born by river users.

The rivers are not accessible to most park visitors, so the cost of river management related to river trips is most appropriately shared by actual river users rather than being paid for entirely by the general public. Currently, commercial outfitters providing public river trips within Canyonlands National Park pay fees which offset the costs of related river management.  

Private river trips make up a significant portion of the park’s recreational river use. With this new fee private river users will share in the costs of managing the rivers. Costs of the river management program will now be shared by a combination of the general public (congressionally allocated funding) the commercial operators (franchise fees paid to the park) and private boaters (through this new cost recovery measure).

   
Questions?

Canyonlands Reservation Office staff are available by phone to answer questions and assist with trip planning Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Mountain Time), at (435) 259-4351. When workload permits, phones may be answered until 4:00 p.m. They can also be contacted by email.