Colorado River · Castle Valley · Fisher Towers
Moab Tours
The easiest half day in Moab that is not a park tour: Mild to Wild's afternoon float on the Colorado through Castle Valley, about two hours on the water with a few Class II rapids, and the shuttle from town included.
- 4.9 / 5 779+ Reviews
- 4 hours Duration
- Half day On the Colorado
- No park fee Outside the Parks
- Free Cancellation
Moab at a Glance
- Where tours leave from
- Operators' offices on and near Main Street; flights from Canyonlands Field, about 20 miles north
- The river
- Day floats run the Colorado through Castle Valley, near Fisher Towers, upstream of town and outside the national parks
- Hell's Revenge
- A slickrock 4x4 trail in the Sand Flats Recreation Area on BLM land, run with Grand County; it has its own vehicle fee
- Dark skies
- Canyonlands has been an International Dark Sky Park since 2015 and Dead Horse Point since 2016
- The parks
- Arches is about 15 minutes north of downtown; Island in the Sky about 40 minutes; the Needles about 2 hours
- Tours
- A half-day Colorado River float from $109.91 a person (checked October 2026)
- River season
- The afternoon float runs March 15 to November 8, 2026, and again from March 13, 2027; there are no departures in between (checked October 2026)
The Experience
What the Afternoon Float Covers
Mild to Wild's half-day trip on the Colorado above Moab.
Highlights
- About two hours floating the Colorado through Castle Valley
- A few Class II rapids, mild enough for families
- Round-trip shuttle from the Moab office; helmets and splash jackets provided
What's Included
- Pre-trip safety orientation
- River and land access fees included
- Free Parking
- Highly maintained equipment
- Free splash jackets and helmets (if desired)
- Trip Leaders average 2,000 river miles
- Round trip shuttle from main Moab office
Not Included: Gratuities
How Moab Tours Work
Most of what Moab sells starts in town and ends there by dinner.
Check In at the Office
Mild to Wild's tour time is your check-in time at its Moab office, under the Mild to Wild Rafting and Jeep Tours sign; a shuttle takes you to the river and back.
Dress to Get Wet
The water is warm from late spring to early fall. Splash jackets and helmets are provided if you want them, and river and land access fees are included.
Expect Easy Water
A few Class II rapids and long calm stretches: suitable for all fitness levels and for families. Minimum numbers apply; if a date falls short you are offered another trip or a full refund.
Leave the Park Pass at Home
Nothing on this page enters a national park, so no park fee applies. For the parks themselves, start from the district pages.
Photo Gallery
The Colorado Above Moab
Photos from the trip listing: Castle Valley, the red-rock walls and the rapids.
Book Your Experience
Check Dates for the Afternoon Float
Dates, times and the live price open on the tour's Viator page.
Mild to Wild Rafting and Jeep Tours
Moab Afternoon Half Day Rafting Trip - Colorado River
- 4.9/5 from 779 reviews on Viator and Tripadvisor
- 4 hours
- From $109.91 per person (checked October 2026)
- Runs March 15 to November 8, 2026, and again from March 13, 2027
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
- Check in at Mild to Wild's Moab office
Four Ways to Spend Half a Day in Moab
One tour per activity, all outside the national parks. Prices from the listings, with the month they were checked.
| Feature | THIS PAGE Afternoon Float | Hell's Revenge UTV | Canyonlands + Arches Flight | Telescope Night |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What You Pay | From $109.91 per person (checked October 2026) | From $260 per 2-seat UTV (checked October 2026) | From $480 per person (checked October 2026); at least 2 per booking | From $200 per person (checked October 2026) |
| Time | About 4 hours with the shuttle, 2 on the water | 2.5 hours | 80 minutes in the air | 2 hours |
| Where | The Colorado through Castle Valley | Hell's Revenge and Fins N' Things, Sand Flats | Over Arches and all three Canyonlands districts | A dark desert site 30 minutes south of town |
| Park Fee? | No | No; Sand Flats has its own vehicle fee | No | No |
| Best For | Families, first-timers, hot afternoons | Drivers who want steep slickrock | Seeing the Maze and the whole park at once | Planets, nebulae and the Milky Way with a guide |
| Check dates | See the UTV tour | See the flight | See the night |
More in Moab
More Moab Tours Outside the Parks
A full day on the river, a four-seat UTV, an electric dirt bike ride, a helicopter, a dinner cruise and a Hell's Revenge U-drive.
FULL DAY ON THE RIVERMoab Full-Day Rafting Trip with Lunch, Colorado River
A full day on the Colorado from Castle Valley back toward Moab, mostly floating with a few Class II rapids, and a deli lunch on a beach.
4-SEAT UTVMoab You-Drive UTV Tour: Fins N Things & Hell's Revenge
A 3.5-hour guided U-drive over Fins N Things and Hell's Revenge in a four-seat Kawasaki KRX 1000, with daytime and sunset departures. The price is per vehicle.
EVENING CRUISEMoab: Colorado River Dinner Cruise with Music and Light Show
Begin the evening on the banks of the Colorado River, just 2 miles north of Moab, Utah. Savor a delicious cowboy-style Dutch oven dinner in a dining room overlooking …
U-DRIVE, 21+Moab: Hell's Revenge UTV 4x4 Guided Adventure
Drive the legendary Hell’s Revenge trail yourself on Moab’s most thrilling 4x4 adventure. The U-Drive T-Rex Hell’s Revenge Tour puts licensed drivers 21 and over …
ELECTRIC DIRT BIKEElectric Dirt Bike Tour, Shafer Trail, Canyonlands, Deadhorse
A 2.5-hour guided electric dirt bike ride from the Potash Road boat ramp up to an overlook above the Colorado, with views of Canyonlands and Dead Horse Point from outside both parks.
BY HELICOPTERIsland in the Sky & Canyon Country Heli Tour - 45 minutes
A 45-minute helicopter flight with a window seat for everyone, over Dead Horse Point, Thelma and Louise Point, the Potash ponds and the Island in the Sky district.
The Guide
Moab Tours: What the Town Sells Outside the Parks
The national parks have their own pages. This one is for the river, the slickrock and the sky.
Moab is where every Canyonlands and Arches tour starts, but the town sells a second set of trips that never pass a park gate: the Colorado River upstream of town, the slickrock of Sand Flats on the hill behind it, the dark desert sky, and the view from a small plane. This page covers that second set. The parks have their own pages, district by district, linked in the strip above.
The short answer
For one free half day that is not a park tour, float the Colorado. Mild to Wild’s afternoon trip, in the booking box on this page, runs about two hours on the water through Castle Valley, the red-rock valley below Fisher Towers and Castleton Tower, with a few Class II rapids and long calm stretches between them. The whole trip, with the shuttle from the Moab office and back, takes about four hours. It costs from $109.91 a person and is rated 4.9 from 779 reviews on Viator and Tripadvisor (checked October 2026), with river access fees, splash jackets and helmets included.
Check dates for the afternoon float
It suits families and anyone who has never rafted, and it fills the hot part of a summer afternoon. Mild to Wild also runs the same stretch as a morning float, and as a full day with a deli lunch on a beach.
Pick by what you want
Moab Afternoon Half Day Rafting Trip - Colorado River
Two hours on the Colorado through Castle Valley, mild rapids, shuttle from town. Families and first-timers.
Check dates →You-Drive 4x4 UTV Adventure: Hell's Revenge & Fins N' Things
You drive a two-seat UTV behind a guide over Hell's Revenge and Fins N' Things on Sand Flats. Priced per vehicle; licensed 16-year-olds may drive with a parent.
See the UTV tour →Canyonlands and Arches Combo National Park Airplane Tour
Eighty minutes over Arches and all three Canyonlands districts, the Maze included, from Canyonlands Field. At least two per booking.
See the flight →Professional Stargazing in Moab
Two hours at a dark site 30 minutes south of town with an astronomer, telescopes, blankets and hot drinks.
See the night →Prices, ratings and review counts from the Viator listings (checked October 2026). Operators price by season; treat the figures as the shape of the market, not a quote.
Each of these has its own page with the alternatives: Moab UTV tours compares the Hell’s Revenge operators and their driver ages, scenic flights the three flights and the helicopter, stargazing the sunset and telescope tours, and rafting the river days, including the one that adds a morning in Canyonlands.
Why these are outside the parks
The rafting, the UTV trails and the telescope nights all happen on land and water outside the national parks, which is why none of them needs a park pass. The day floats run the Colorado upstream of town, through Castle Valley, rather than inside Canyonlands; the river’s whitewater inside the park is Cataract Canyon, a multi-day trip. Hell’s Revenge is in the Sand Flats Recreation Area, Bureau of Land Management land run with Grand County, with its own vehicle fee at the entrance station; UTVs and other off-highway vehicles are not allowed on Canyonlands’ White Rim Road (nps.gov, checked October 2026). The flights take off from Canyonlands Field and fly over the parks rather than into them.
The night sky is the exception that needs no exception. Canyonlands has been a certified International Dark Sky Park since 2015 and Dead Horse Point State Park since 2016, and the telescope tour’s site south of town shares the same darkness.
Where the tours leave from
- Mild to Wild Rafting and Jeep Tours: its Moab office; your tour time is your check-in time.
- Epic 4X4 Adventures (UTV): 400 East and South Main Street (US-191).
- Redtail Air (flights): Canyonlands Field Airport, about 20 miles north of Moab.
- Stargazing Moab: a desert site about 30 minutes south of town; directions arrive after booking, so download them before you lose signal.
An evening on the river, and another UTV option
For an evening, Canyonlands By Night & Day runs a Colorado River dinner cruise with a sound-and-light show on the canyon walls, from $108 a person on GetYourGuide with a cowboy-style dinner and drinks included (checked October 2026). For the slickrock with a bigger group, Moab Tourism Center sells a Hell's Revenge U-drive in four-seat UTVs on GetYourGuide, from $152 a person; drivers must be 21 or older with a licence. For the dark-sky tours inside the parks, start with the sunset tour on the stargazing page.
How many days to give Moab
Three days covers the classic version: Arches on one, Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point on another, and the river or the slickrock on the third. With two, pair a half-day park tour in the morning with a float or a UTV in the afternoon. The Arches tours and Island in the Sky tours both run half days from Main Street, and the Canyonlands in one day guide shows how much fits.
If your trip continues south, monument-valley-tour.com covers the Navajo-guided tours in Monument Valley, about two and a half hours’ drive from Moab.
Guest Reviews
What Moab Rafters Say
Read the 779 reviews of this tour on Viator
See All ReviewsAn Afternoon on the Colorado
Mild to Wild's half-day float through Castle Valley: about two hours on the water, a few Class II rapids, splash jackets and the shuttle from Moab included. Free cancellation up to 24 hours before. Starting from $109.91 per person.
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Moab Tours: Questions
Planning the days around the parks.
The two national parks first, then the river and the slickrock. Arches and Canyonlands' Island in the Sky are each a half day from town by tour or by car. Outside the parks, the popular half days are a float on the Colorado through Castle Valley, a UTV or Jeep run over Hell's Revenge on Sand Flats, a scenic flight over all three Canyonlands districts, and a night of stargazing. Dead Horse Point State Park fits into the Island in the Sky day.
No. Moab is the town; Arches is a national park about 15 minutes north of it. Canyonlands is the other national park nearby, with its Island in the Sky district about 40 minutes away, and Dead Horse Point is a Utah state park next to it. Moab itself is where the hotels, the restaurants and the tour operators are, and where almost every tour starts.
Three days for the classic trip, two at a push. One day for Arches, one for Island in the Sky and Dead Horse Point, and one for the river, the slickrock or the Needles. With two days, pair a half-day park tour in the morning with a float or a UTV tour in the afternoon. The Maze and Cataract Canyon need several days of their own.
Yes, though the day trips near town are mild. The half-day and full-day floats on the Colorado through Castle Valley have Class I and II rapids, suitable for families. The serious whitewater is Cataract Canyon inside Canyonlands, three to five days with Class III to V rapids, and Westwater Canyon upstream, which outfitters run as a full day.
April, May, late September and October. NPS calls spring and fall the temperate seasons, with daytime highs of 60 to 80 degrees F. July averages about 100 degrees F, and late-summer storms can flood the dirt roads. Winter is cold and quiet, and many tours, including the half-day Canyonlands 4x4, keep running.
The town is not, but the parks around it are. Canyonlands has been a certified International Dark Sky Park since 2015 and Dead Horse Point State Park since 2016. Stargazing tours run in and around both, and one telescope tour uses a dark desert site about 30 minutes south of town.
The tours on this page do not need it; most park tours do not include it. Rafting, UTV trails, flights and the telescope night are all outside the national parks. Tours that enter Arches or Canyonlands usually add the park fee on top, $15 a person or free with an annual pass; a few van tours of Arches include it.
Still have questions? Email us at info@canyonlands-tours.com