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Glenwood Canyon: Shoshone Rapids of the Colorado

The Colorado River: Shoshone Powerplant to Grizzly Creek | Average CFS: 1,440
Saturday, August 24, 2024

This weekend I needed to stay closer to home so I could meet up with a friend in Utah on Sunday afternoon, so Jackson and I had talked about maybe rafting the Shoshone section of the Colorado River on Saturday morning. However, last week on my way home from the Holy Cross Wilderness, I stopped at the Shoshone exit and walked the paved path next to the rapids to check them out since I had never really taken a good look at them before, and I wasn’t sure that I was ready to tackle these rapids in my ducky just yet. During the week I was able to talk Jackson into joining me on a commercial trip instead so we could get a feel for running these rapids with an experienced guide, so we signed up for a Double Shoshone trip with Defiance Rafting Company that would take us through the rapids twice.

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…

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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!

The Colorado River: Tibbetts to Parachute

Saturday & Sunday, June 15 & 16, 2024

After our recent rafting trip through Cataract Canyon and with an upcoming trip into Westwater Canyon planned for July, Jackson and I are both getting closer to having floated all of the Colorado River from Glenwood Canyon to Lake Powell, but we were still missing a large segment of the river from New Castle to De Beque Canyon. We figured it was about time to start working on this section, especially while the water is still high and moving fast, so this weekend we made plans to float the Colorado River from Tibbetts, which is just upstream of New Castle, to Parachute, a length of just under 40 miles. Since this area is an easy drive from home for us, we decided to split it up into two sections and do each one as a short day trip.

Big Water in Cataract Canyon: The Colorado River

Utah’s Biggest Whitewater in Canyonlands National Park | Average CFS: 31,500
Friday – Sunday, May 31 – June 2, 2024

As many of you already know, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time exploring, hiking, backpacking, Jeeping and floating the rivers within Canyonlands National Park over the years. However, Cataract Canyon has been the one section of the Colorado River in Canyonlands that has eluded me over that time. Since there’s a pretty good chance I might never have the opportunity to navigate the large rapids of Cataract Canyon on a private river trip, I figured this would probably be a good place to try out a commercial river trip for the first time and see how it goes. So late last year I booked a 3-day motorized trip with Mild To Wild Rafting and then my friend Jackson did the same for his family so we could go on the trip together. Since we would be in a large raft with an experienced guide on this trip instead of in our little inflatable kayaks, we tried to time the trip to coincide with the highest water of the year that typically happens during spring runoff in late May and early June, and I think we ended up doing a pretty good job on the timing.

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Category: Rafting

Glenwood Canyon: Shoshone Rapids of the Colorado

Westwater Canyon of the Colorado River

The Colorado River: Parachute to Beavertail Mountain

The Colorado River: Tibbetts to Parachute

Big Water in Cataract Canyon: The Colorado River