For the last dozen plus years we’ve gathered all sorts of musical instruments and gone on a river trip. It's all the wonder of river running, desert strolling and warm riverside camping in combination with music in starlit sand amphitheaters. It's the camaraderie of a music camp and a river trip all rolled into one! Bring any sorts of instruments (dulcimers, guitars, oboes and ocarinas), your camping get up, your smiles and your friends and we'll bring professional guides, rafts, fabulous food and whatever other specialized equipment you might need on the river. No river experience is necessary. We'll teach you everything you need to know about camping and river traveling.
PHOTO GALLERY OF MOONS AND TUNES TRIPS
Next June will find the 2012 edition of the Moons and Tunes Wilderness River Trip traveling 46 miles of the Yampa River, then merging with the Green River at Echo Park for another 25 miles. Almost all the trip is in Dinosaur National Park. It's a beautiful stretch - they usually put these national parks in beautiful spots somehow. The Yampa is the last un-dammed river in the Colorado River system. You might want to arrive a day early to explore the dinosaur quarry near Vernal, UT. LOGISTICS: Here in November, the June 4-8 trip is filling fast, so we're adding another trip, exactly the same, for the following week, June 11-15. We'll meet in Vernal, UT around 5 PM on Sun (June 3rd or 10th) before the trip for cocktail hour to get to know each other and to get some orientation from our guides. We'll get up early the next morning and take our cars to the river company's headquarters, and put in that morning. We'll spend all week on the river and then return to our cars late Fri. (June 8th or 15th). THE COST: $850 per person, and this year we are including the 10% guide gratuities in the $850 cost up front so you don't have to try to hang onto your money through the trip. We'll give the money to them together as always. And what's included for this? Your food, your transportation to the put in and from the take out, all the river gear (boats, life jackets, eating utensils, toilet paper) and all the fun you can have! Your check is your reservation; please make it to Bonnie Carol and send to me at 15 Sherwood Road, Nederland, CO 80466 before March 1, 2011. MUST YOU BE A MUSICIAN TO COME? Of course not. You'll have a fine time participating in all sorts of silliness, costumes, hikes, and river running, and people will entertain you with music day and night! GUIDES AND EQUIPMENT? We will have professional river guides to run our rafts, cook our dinners, and help us have a safe and fun trip. The guides will also bring our boats, gourmet food and whatever other specialized river equipment we might need such as waterproof bags for your gear and life jackets. All you need to bring is your sleeping bag and tent, outdoors clothes, your musical instruments and anything else you'd like to contribute to the fun - poems, stories and... BOATS? We'll have rubber rafts in which we’ll ride and in which our gear is transported. We'll also have some inflatable kayaks for anyone who wants to have more fun. (More fun? How is this possible?)
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EXPERIENCE? No experience is necessary - we'll teach you all you need to know to camp and run the river. Many people have come on these trips as their first-ever-in-their-lifetime camping trip. WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE FUN DEPARTMENT: I can't tell you what will happen on this summer's river trip any better than to describe other year's trips, and let you use your imagination. Each trip is different; all have been some of the best experiences of my life. Those of you who have come before have contributed to the fun I describe below, but if you've never been, here is an attempt to describe some of the flavor of the trips. To begin with on this trip, we leave on the first night of the FULL MOON! On past trips, we've created dances on the spot (or on the sand, I guess would be a better description) from Sufi to step dance; we've had dulcimer playing zebras; there was a lover's waltz dedicated to two couples who joined us for their anniversaries; we had an evening of love songs, which included a poem from the great Western cowboy poetry tradition about the unbridled love between a cowboy and his horse; Kokopelli made a guest appearance to play a duet with our saxophone player for a lunch concert/dance; we had a performance of stand-up comedy improv about nights in New York; costume parties have featured characters from Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane to the Pope - whatever one could create from the contents of a dry bag and the treasures to be found on the riverbank.
Looking forward to being with you in paradise! Bonnie |
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS? Please bring some. Any instruments that will fit in a dry bag and that won't be damaged by outdoor conditions are fine. We've had flute, saxophone, penny whistle, recorder, guitar, trumpet, fiddle, drums, marimba, mbira, trombone, accordion, and dulcimers of all descriptions. Don't bring anything irreplaceable or invaluable to you, and fretted dulcimers or guitars need hard cases. I have some hard dulcimer cases to lend. The instruments ride on a raft in waterproof bags, and are most likely not to swim. However, outdoors environments are hard on things - sand, hot, cold, etc. I have a couple of pretty good guitars and a Master Works 12/11 hammered dulcimer available for everyone to use. Please let me know if you're a guitar player so I can be sure we have enough guitars. 
WHITE WATER? There are class 2-3 rapids daily on this run, and a few class 4 which you may walk around if you like. 
