Westwater Canyon of the Colorado River

Westwater Creek to Cisco Landing | Average CFS: 5,440
Thursday, July 11, 2024

A couple weeks ago Jackson grabbed a permit for Westwater so he could take a shot at paddling his inflatable kayak through the canyon, and he invited me along. Since I had never been through Westwater Canyon before, I wasn’t ready to take my ducky through just yet and instead I opted to ride along on my friend Steve’s raft so I could finally see this canyon and it’s rapids for the first time. Early on Thursday morning I headed over to the Westwater Boat Ramp and met up with Steve. I helped him get his boat off the trailer and into the water, and then hung around with Lisa and Jen while the rest of our group ran the shuttle down to Cisco Landing. After everyone returned from running the shuttle we were on the river and headed downstream by about 10:00am. The temperature was predicted to get up to around 105 degrees today, so it was going to be a hot one and I’m glad we were going to be spending it on the river. As an added bonus, Westwater Canyon is the last section of the Colorado River between Glenwood Canyon and Lake Powell that I had not floated yet, so I was very happy to finally be completing that goal today, too. I guess now it’s time to start working on the Grand Canyon and the Upper Colorado…

Welcome to Westwater

Bob & Lisa are ready for a great day on the river!

Jackson in his inflatable kayak.

Before getting to the rapids, Jackson wanted to make sure he could flip his boat back over if he needed to, so he tried it and had no issues.

Entering Westwater Canyon

Christopher & Jen are both very experienced in Westwater.

The first couple of miles are a nice, easy, relaxing float with great scenery all around.

It was great to finally see Westwater Canyon from the river, since in the past I’ve only ever peered down into it from the rim and the mouth of Little Hole.

Shortly before reaching the bigger rapids, we stopped for a lunch break at Lower Cougar Bar.

The canyon was beautiful as we headed downstream towards the rapids.

Here’s a short video clip of Steve and I going through Skull Rapid with Jackson’s boat across my lap. He fell out of his boat at Surprise Rapid and was unable to get back to it in time for Skull, so I grabbed it and pulled it out of the water while he hopped in Bob and Lisa’s raft.

After we all got through Skull Rapid, we stopped in the eddy just below to regroup and get Jackson back into his kayak.

Here’s a short video clip of us going through Sock It To Me Rapid.

Blue Heron

Once we were through all the rapids Bob wanted to test the flip lines on his raft.

While they were flipping the raft over Lisa hopped into Jackson’s kayak for a bit.

After tying all the boats together with a motor it wasn’t long until we left the Precambrian rocks behind and exited Westwater Canyon.

Sandstone Monument

Although I’m not sure if I’m ready to take on Westwater in my inflatable kayak yet, I had a great day on the river and would definitely like to return again in the future. It was a great way to spend a very hot day!

>> Westwater Canyon Photo Gallery

 

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Jackson put together short and long versions of the videos he took from the GoPro on his helmet while paddling through the rapids, so if you are interested in watching either of those videos I have shared them from YouTube below.