The Grand Junction of the Gunnison River and Colorado River | Estimated CFS: 460
Summer Solstice | Tuesday, June 21, 2022
After floating part of the Gunnison River from Whitewater to the Redlands Dam with Jackson a little over a week ago, we knew that we would have to come back with our packrafts to float the short section from the Redlands Dam down to the confluence with the Colorado River since it’s one of the remaining few sections below Pleasure Park that neither of us had done yet. After figuring out a date that our schedules aligned, we planned the short float for today after work on the Summer Solstice. Since we didn’t have too much time in the evening, this needed to be a short float, so we planned to take-out at Dos Rios Park just below the confluence at a spot that Jackson had scouted the previous weekend. We left from work, dropped Jackson’s car off at Dos Rios and then took my Jeep down to the Redlands Dam where we inflated our packrafts and got on the river.
The put-in right below the Redlands Dam was much nicer than the spot we took-out at above the dam on our last float.
My packraft and the the Redlands Dam.
It didn’t take us long to inflate our boats and get on the river once we arrived.
For being so close to downtown Grand Junction, I was surprised at how scenic this short section of the river was.
There’s nothing like a quick float after work on the Summer Solstice!
There were a couple shallow sections where we walked our boats downstream, which gave us the opportunity to get cooled down in the afternoon heat.
As we neared “The Grand Junction” we spotted the top of the railroad bridge over the brush.
The Fifth Street Wave was looking good today, and there were a couple kayakers who were taking advantage.
The Colorado River was moving much faster than the lower Gunnison, so we arrived at the rocky shore of Dos Rios Park in no time, and were home for dinner shortly after!
