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Category: Paddling

San Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel RiverSan Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River

San Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River

Caddis Flats to Beaver Creek & Deep Creek to Down Valley Park | Average CFS: 675
Saturday & Sunday, June 7-8, 2025

Late last year Jackson and I decided to take advantage of Mild To Wild’s annual Black Friday sale and booked a trip on the upper San Miguel River for this Sunday with hopes that there would be enough water to run it. Luckily, even though the San Juan Mountains had a pretty poor snow year this winter, there was still enough water to raft the San Miguel at this time, so we planned to head down on Saturday morning to float through San Miguel Canyon from Caddis Flats to Beaver Creek in our inflatable kayaks the day before. A few years back Jackson and I had floated through Norwood Canyon just downstream from here and we were looking forward to checking out these other sections of the upper San Miguel River this weekend.

CONTINUE READINGSan Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River
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Desolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green RiverDesolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green River

Desolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green River

Splitting the Tavaputs Plateau in Two: Sand Wash to Swaseys Beach
Sunday – Saturday, May 11-17, 2025 | Average CFS: 6,665

After getting permits for Yampa Canyon and the Canyon of Lodore over the past two years, Jackson’s and my main goal for this year was to try and get a Spring Low-Use Season permit for the Green River through Desolation Canyon and Gray Canyon as we continue to work our way through more sections of the Colorado River and Green River across the Colorado Plateau. Although Jackson and I have still have never actually won a permit in any of the lotteries we have entered over the years we have been lucky enough to grab permits and cancellations during the general releases after the fact, and this time I managed to get us a permit for Desolation Canyon back in mid-March. Once we had the permit we quickly got started on the planning process since the launch date was only about two months away, but we quickly found out that many of our usual river friends were unable to make the trip this spring. Luckily, our friends Bob and Lisa were able to go and they had a few other friends that they were able to invite on the trip with us, two of whom were very familiar with Desolation Canyon and were a great addition to the trip! In the end I enjoyed rafting with everyone who was on this trip and would invite every single one of them back in a heartbeat!

CONTINUE READINGDesolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green River
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Canyon of Lodore: The Green River in DinosaurlandCanyon of Lodore: The Green River in Dinosaurland

Canyon of Lodore: The Green River in Dinosaurland

Floating Across Dinosaur National Monument: Gates of Lodore to Split Mountain
Monday – Friday, September 23-27, 2024 | High CFS: 1,800 – Low CFS: 911

After finally getting the opportunity to float through Yampa Canyon at very high water last spring in Dinosaur National Monument, Jackson and I turned our attention to the Canyon of Lodore this year as we continue to work our way through more sections of the Green and Colorado Rivers on the Colorado Plateau. Although I initially had some issues getting us a permit earlier in the year, Jackson managed to come through and secured us a Low-Use Season permit for late September, which was the time of the year we had hoped to take on this trip down the Green River. While many parties seem to raft this stretch of the river in four days, we scheduled a five-day trip so we could take our time and really enjoy getting to know the canyon. After inviting our usual river friends along, we ended up with most of the same people who were with us on the Yampa River last year with just a few additions and subtractions, which would be perfect since we had such a great time together on that trip.

CONTINUE READINGCanyon of Lodore: The Green River in Dinosaurland
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The Colorado River: Palisade Rim to Riverbend ParkThe Colorado River: Palisade Rim to Riverbend Park

The Colorado River: Palisade Rim to Riverbend Park

After Work Adventures | Tuesday, July 9, 2024 | Average CFS: 3,860

This afternoon Jackson and I headed out after work to go for a short float with our packrafts on the Colorado River from the Palisade Rim Trailhead to the Riverbend Park in Palisade. As we get very close to floating all of the Colorado River from Glenwood Canyon to Lake Powell, this was one of the few remaining sections of the river left for both of us. The water level of the river has dropped quickly and significantly over the past week, so it was moving a little slower than our past couple of trips further upstream and we had to watch out for rocks just under the surface, but the entire float still took us less than an hour and we were home in time for dinner.

CONTINUE READINGThe Colorado River: Palisade Rim to Riverbend Park
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The Colorado River: Parachute to Beavertail MountainThe Colorado River: Parachute to Beavertail Mountain

The Colorado River: Parachute to Beavertail Mountain

Saturday & Sunday, June 29 & 30, 2024

This weekend Jackson and I set out to continue what we had started two weeks ago by floating two more sections of the Colorado River close to home as day trips. Last time we had started near New Castle and left off at Parachute, so this weekend we planned to float two more sections from Parachute down to Beavertail Mountain in De Beque Canyon, which is a section of just over 28 miles. Although there was a lot of storm activity in the area this weekend, we made sure to to get started early and off the river before noon so we had no issues with weather or wind and the mornings were actually perfect for floating the Colorado River!

CONTINUE READINGThe Colorado River: Parachute to Beavertail Mountain
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