the days of private boaters counting on scoring yearly permits are over, confirmed by statistics released by Recreation One Stop, or recreation.gov, the federal interagency outdoor-adventure-reservation booking system, for seasons 2022 and 2023.

Kevin Colburn, the national stewardship director of American Whitewater, called the data “stunning.” In 2022, applications for permits on four of the West’s most sought-after rivers — Idaho’s Middle Fork of the Salmon, the Main Salmon, the Selway and the Snake River through Hells Canyon, known together as the “Four Rivers” — surpassed 60,000 for a total of 1,054 permits. That’s a 300% increase over applications in 2012.

Closer to Colorado, in 2022 more than 12,000 boaters applied for 430 permits on the San Juan River, which starts in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado and flows through northern New Mexico and Utah; 18,325 applied for 300 permits on the Yampa River, which starts near Steamboat Springs and flows through Dinosaur National Monument; and 11,405 boaters put in for 674 permits on the Green River stretch through Desolation and Gray canyons also in Utah.

This year’s numbers are down just slightly, with 58,592 people applying for the “Four Rivers;” 11,749 for the San Juan, and 11,325 on the Deso-Gray. Yampa numbers were up by roughly 200. And both years’ numbers are thousands higher than they were a decade ago….Read full story HERE