Yampa River Festival

Friends of the Yampa has organized the Yampa River Festival since 1980, and the 46th annual edition runs May 28–31, 2026, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, with the main event concentrated on Saturday, May 30. The festival coincides each year with the post-Memorial Day weekend and typically aligns with the Steamboat Marathon, bringing two communities of participants to the same mountain town river corridor at the same time. The Yampa River, which flows 270 miles through northwest Colorado before joining the Green River in Dinosaur National Park, is the last major wild river remaining in the seven-state Colorado River basin, flowing mostly unimpeded by the system of dams and diversions that define every other significant tributary. The festival is the Friends of the Yampa’s most visible annual action in support of that status.

Thursday, May 29, opens the festival with the State of the Yampa Address at 6 p.m. in Library Hall at the Bud Werner Memorial Library, featuring a river conservation update and a panel discussion following a film screening. The Adam Mayo Memorial Fish Creek Kayak Race begins Friday at 6 p.m. at Mt. Werner Water, with prizes of $300, $200, and $100 for the top three finishers. Saturday’s main event runs from approximately 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Charlie’s Hole, behind the Bud Werner Memorial Library, with kayak and SUP races, a downriver race, slalom competitions, freestyle kayaking, a tube rodeo for the Golden Tube prize, a raft rodeo, and the Crazy River Dog contest, in which dogs leap into the Yampa from the eddy by D Hole while wearing required PFDs. Sunday closes with a kayak slalom at Dr. Rich Weiss Park. Most events require free registration through the Friends of the Yampa; spectating is unrestricted at all river venues.

The Yampa Through Steamboat

The Yampa River flows through the center of Steamboat Springs with a sequence of engineered whitewater features that give urban paddlers year-round play wave access rare in a mountain town of this size. The Rabbit Hole, Double Z Wave, Model T Hole, A-Hole, and D-Hole are the main play features distributed along the river corridor through town, with the festival’s race courses set across the same infrastructure on competition days. The Yampa River Core Trail, a paved multiuse path running along both banks through the town’s center, provides spectator access to all river venues without requiring anything more strenuous than a level walk.

If You’re Going with Kids
The Crazy River Dog contest is the weekend’s most reliably crowd-pleasing event, requiring neither athletic skill nor prior paddling experience on the part of the children watching. The dog-diving format, in which animals leap from an eddy bank into the Yampa with their owners cheering from shore, operates at a scale and pace that holds children’s attention through the full program. The Gear Swap at Backdoor Sports on Yampa Street, held in the spirit of board member Adam Mayo, opens the weekend on a community note that reflects the social character of the event.

Steamboat Lake and the Water Beyond Town

Steamboat Lake, 25 miles north of Steamboat Springs in Routt County, is a 1,053-acre state park reservoir offering sailing, motorized boating, and trout fishing in a mountain setting at 8,000 feet, distinctly removed from the festival’s river energy and well suited to a quieter morning before or after the main competition day. The state park has a full campground, boat rentals, and shoreline access that makes it worth building into any extended Steamboat Springs itinerary.

Where to Stay

Steamboat Springs’ downtown lodging is within walking distance of all festival venues along the Yampa. For vacation rentals in the Steamboat area, look on Lake.com for properties in the Routt County corridor that position you within easy distance of the river trail and the Bud Werner Memorial Library. The post-Memorial Day weekend is a lower-pressure booking window than the holiday itself; still confirm accommodations at least three to four weeks in advance for the May 28–31 festival window.