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The San Juan River

Sand Island to Mexican Hat
Wednesday – Friday, May 8-10, 2013

I have wanted to get on the San Juan River for a while, but because of the permit system in place I have never really tried. This year I decided it was finally time to try and secure a permit for myself and a few friends from work. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get any permits from the original lottery. However, I was able to grab an opening at a later date. We had originally wanted to try and do the whole stretch of the San Juan from Sand Island to the Clay Hills Crossing, but the permit we were able to get only let us go to Mexican Hat on this trip.

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Ruby – Horsethief Canyons

Friday – Sunday, August 24-26, 2012

After work on Friday I met Jackson at the Westwater exit on I-70, after the slower than usual drive through two construction zones, so that we could drop his car off at the Westwater takeout along the Colorado River. Our plan this weekend was to float through the Ruby – Horsethief Canyons section of the Colorado River from Loma to Westwater. This was going to be my very first overnight river trip and I had been looking forward to it for a while. Thanks to all my new backpacking gear bought earlier this year, packing the inflatable kayak was much easier, even though I decided to bring along a bigger tent this trip. This section of the Colorado is about 25 miles in length and is pretty mild, but it flows through some beautiful sandstone canyons. Once Jackson’s car was parked in the Westwater parking lot we took my Jeep back to the Loma boat ramp and got our inflatable kayaks ready for the trip. As I suspected, we had the launch site to ourselves on a Friday evening at about 5:30pm.

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Gray Canyon and the Island in the Sky

Saturday & Sunday, August 4-5, 2012

On Saturday I met up with Jackson and his family so that we could float a section of the Green River known as the Green River Daily. This section is a few miles long and located within Gray Canyon a few miles north of the town of Green River. There aren’t really any big rapids on this stretch of the river, especially at this year’s very low water flows, so we were just expecting a nice relaxing float with a lot of swimming to stay cool. I also hoped to find some new petroglyphs along the way.

Independence Day in Glenwood Canyon

Grizzly Creek to South Canyon
Independence Day | Wednesday, July 4, 2012

This past weekend when Jackson and I were hiking up Uncompahgre Peak he suggested that we take our boats to Glenwood Canyon for the 4th of July, and I thought that sounded like an excellent idea…so we did. We decided to put in at Grizzly Creek and take out at South Canyon for this day trip. I’ve been on this stretch of the Colorado River before, but never in my own boat, so I was looking forward to trying it out. Even with the low water levels this year, the river was still moving at a good pace through this section and there were still some Class II+ rapids and plenty of large boulders to avoid along the way. It was a lot of fun and definitely good practice for me.

The Gunnison River: Bridgeport to Whitewater

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Over the winter I bought my own inflatable kayak so that I wouldn’t have to rent or borrow one anymore, and I’ve been looking forward to getting it on the river for the first time this year. Originally, Jackson and I wanted to go on a day trip through Ruby-Horsethief Canyon on the Colorado River, but because of the low river this year, we knew that it would not work very well as a day trip. Instead we decided to check out a new section of the Gunnison River that is very close to home.

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Category: Paddling

The San Juan River

Ruby – Horsethief Canyons

Gray Canyon and the Island in the Sky

Independence Day in Glenwood Canyon

The Gunnison River: Bridgeport to Whitewater