Green

Beautiful evening float in Whirlpool Canyon before a strong storm blew in.

Jerry about to enter Hells half mile while the group watches.

Winnie's Rapid is the first one you'll approach and one of the only rapids where the easiest scout is on the right. The big boulder in the center is the obvious obstacle to avoid. When rowing watch out for shallow rocks on the river right side. Bumping off these rocks will push you onto the big boulder.
On the topo map (Dinosaur National Monument Rivermpas) you'll see an elbow bend in the river before the marking of this rapid on the map. Be sure to catch the eddy on river left in the elbow turn. A trail on river left leads you along the rapid for a good scouting view. The rapid can be run down the center, avoiding the rocks on either side, especially those hiding under the surface on the left. While you're out scouting this rapid, go ahead and scout downstream. While the map makes it seem like there is a distinct distance between Upper Disaster and Lower Disaster there is actually a 'Middle Disaster.' STAY LEFT and READ the WATER! This section is quite technical. Also the right side can be quite dangerous. A group we launched with found trouble at this spot, flipping three oar rigs and landing one of them on a rock for 4 hours. You'll notice there are no pictures for Middle or Lower Disaster. We had good intentions to scout, yet the rapids came upon us before we knew what was really happening.
The map (Dinosaur National Monument Rivermaps) marks a Class III, Harp Falls, before Triplet Falls. However, at this low water level, we never noticed any rapid before Triplet that could be deemed a Class III. You'll see the post for Triplet campsite just before you hear the rapid. As the name indicates, Triplet consists of three drops. Again, this rapid can be scouted river left, and run with a sequence of Center, Right, Left, respective of each drop. The first drop has some sneaky rocks hiding under the surface, but with some good river reading skills a raft should be able the thread the rocks down the middle. The second drop has a beautiful tongue to follow. Move left for the last drop and avoid the rock on river right. The run out for the rapid seems a little shallow. Have your eyes scouting for the best channel to follow.
Third drop + run out.
Winnie's Rapid is the first one you'll approach and one of the only rapids where the easiest scout is on the right. The big boulder in the center is the obvious obstacle to avoid. When rowing watch out for shallow rocks on the river right side. Bumping off these rocks will push you onto the big boulder.
SCOUT on Left. You'll definitely hear the roar of this rapid before seeing the drop. It is the most notable rapid on this section. The scouting trail gives you a great view of the first section of the rapid, but be sure to scout below the bigger part of the drops, as the run gets rocky and the action in the drops happens really fast. The first part of this drop brought the most carnage for our duckies on this trip, 5 of 9 taking a swim on this one. The rafts had exciting runs as they all washed up on Lucifer, the pillow rock after the first drop. When rowing, I found little time to make any move between the first drop and Lucifer. It seems to be a good idea to intentionally ride the pillow rather than to try and avoid it. After Lucifer, the deepest channel was on the left; we know that now after two rafts got hung up on the center rocks in the lower half mile. At even lower water levels, Lucifer is quite mischevious. An OARS guide said that at 600cfs he got his rig pinned there there three hours. Have fun!
Moonshine rapid comes before SOB. It's worth scouting on the left as there are some weird rocks in the last drop that you would want to avoid. But for the most part, the rapid is pretty easy to run, center then right at the end. SOB is a technical little guy, worth a scout (left) mostly to avoid ugly rocks in the middle of the run. At the top of the rapid is a small boulder in the center of the river. Once you've passed the rock, pull right and then manuever around to hit the channel on the right.

The main drop in Hells .25 mile

The Gates of Lodore is an amazing western run, with scenery that rivals the Grand Canyon and rapids that are a little more eastern in nature (much like the Nolichucky). We ran this section at the end of June and the found the water levels to be around 845cfs. At this level, many of the rapids were technical (Middle Disaster Falls) though not horribly difficult in our oar rigs. Duckies and kayaks found it to be a very fun level. The pictures show several of the rapids (although they're not in the right order). The most notable rapid was Hell's Half Mile. We used the Rivermaps Dinosaur National Monument guide. It's much more detailed than the Belknap's guide, giving you more topo information. Make sure you read the permit info carefully as the ranger at the put-in was a stickler. He even asked to see the groover, the first aid kit, the repair kit, the firepan (collect your firewood before heading downstream), and all the extra PFDs and paddles. River Runner's Transport in Vernal, UT, ran our shuttle and did a great job. They even hooked us up with a few pieces of river beta before setting out downstream (info on rapids and hikes). This is an amazing stretch of river; unfortunately only about 300 permits are given each year.