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DINOSAUR, Colorado — Search and rescue crews located and recovered the body of a Colorado man in the Green River Monday.
The 34-year-old victim was part of a 16-member private group taking a river rafting trip to Triplet Falls on Saturday, according to Dinosaur National Monument officials. After running the rapid, four members of the party hiked back upstream to run a section of the river known as the “Birth Canal.”
The group used a 9-foot paddle raft during the run and made it through the rapid, but hit a rock right below it, flipping the raft and dumping all four people into the river, officials said. The paddle raft floated down river and was recovered by other members of the party.
Three of the rafters were able to swim to shore, but a 34-year-old Denver man disappeared in the water. He was briefly spotted below the “Birth Canal” by members of the group who reported he appeared to be stuck.
“The rafting party observed that his personal flotation device and one shoe popped to the surface where he was last seen,” officials said.
The canyon does not have cellphone service and the group searched for the missing man for about two hours before continuing down the river to get help. However, they stopped at the Rippling Brook campsite because it was getting dark and they “did not want to risk rowing in the darkness,” officials said.
The group arrived at the Echo Park Ranger Station around 11 a.m. Sunday and reported the incident to Dinosaur National Monument officials. The Moffat County Sheriff’s Office and Colorado Parks and Wildlife responded with search and rescue crews. The teams located the body of the victim around 12:30 p.m. Monday.
The victim’s body is being transported to Echo Park by raft. His name has not yet been released, pending family notification.
Triplet Falls has a Class 3 difficulty rating and the river flow was approximately 1,670 cubic feet per second at the time of the incident, officials said.
