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Tag: denis julien inscription

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.

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Labyrinth Canyon: Ruby Ranch to Mineral Bottom

Thursday – Monday, September 20-24, 2018

I was pretty excited that it was finally time to get back on the river! I had been looking forward to this trip all summer since it’s been way too long since my last river trip and I was really missing floating through desert canyons. I’ve actually wanted to float this stretch of the Green River for a while now, and I was finally able to convince a few friends to go with me this year. I did most of the planning for this trip which would take us down about 45 miles of the Green River through Labyrinth Canyon from Ruby Ranch to Mineral Bottom. Even though it was a bad snow year in Colorado, the Wind Rivers had a pretty average snow year so the level of the Green River at 2,000cfs was pretty typical for this time of the year. There was originally supposed to be six of us in our group, but at the last minute my friend Jackson and his son had to drop out because his son got sick. This also changed our plans for the shuttle at the last minute since we wouldn’t need two vehicles at the end, so Chris ended up riding with me to Ruby Ranch after work while Steve and Nic would run the shuttle vehicle down to Mineral Bottom in the afternoon and we would all meet up in the evening.

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Lower Red Lake Canyon & The Confluence Overlook

Friday – Sunday, April 13-15, 2018

After hiking down to Spanish Bottom from The Doll House last weekend, I decided it was time to head back to The Needles for the third time this year so I could hike down Lower Red Lake Canyon from Devils Lane to the opposite side of the Colorado River. I had actually planned on doing this hike at the end of February, but a snowstorm the evening before made me change my mind about driving over Elephant Hill by myself in the morning and I switched up my plans at the last minute.

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Book Cliffs Loop

Book Cliffs Rock Art IV | Saturday, December 16, 2017

Since there really hasn’t been any snow to speak of in the area so far this year, I thought it would be a good time to go for a drive up into the Book Cliffs just over the state line in Utah so we could visit some rock art sites that I haven’t been to in a while and that Diane hadn’t seen before. We left home on Saturday morning and took I-70 to the Westwater Exit where we headed north into the Book Cliffs following along Westwater Creek. Unfortunately, even though temperatures were mild, the sky was pretty overcast for much of the day, so I didn’t take too many photos from our journey, aside from of the rock art and a couple of times when the sun did briefly peek out. So if you aren’t interested in seeing a bunch of photos of rock art, you might just want to skip this trip report…

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Alone in the Devil’s Garden

Moab Area Rock Art XXX | Saturday, May 6, 2017

Have you ever spent a day in Devil’s Garden within Arches National Park and not seen another person? That’s a pretty difficult thing to do, even during the winter when we usually visit this area, but it’s pretty much impossible to do during the busiest season of the year! So when I heard that Arches would be closing the Devil’s Garden trailhead for a month because of road construction I knew that it would be the perfect time to visit the area to search for a historic Denis Julien inscription that I’ve been wanting to find for a while. It was pretty awesome having this area to ourselves during one of the busiest times of the year on the Colorado Plateau!

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