john wesley powell // ADVENTR.co

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!

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The Grand Canyon: Lees Ferry to the Bright Angel Trail

Saturday – Wednesday, April 5-9, 2025 | Low CFS: 9,500 – High CFS: 12,000

While rafting through the Grand Canyon has long been a dream of mine and an eventual necessity to complete my goal of floating all the sections of the Colorado River, Green River and their major tributaries across the Colorado Plateau, I figured that a private trip through the canyon is probably unlikely for me anytime soon and knew I would have to go on a commercial trip if I wanted to experience the canyon from the river. Last summer I went on my first commercial rafting trip through Cataract Canyon as a trial run to see how I would be able to handle a trip like this since it was shorter and closer to home. I ended up having a great time on that trip so I immediately booked a trip into the Grand Canyon for Diane and myself.

The Arizona Strip: Peaks, Plateaus & Highpoints

Last year while I was reading A Canyon Voyage by Frederick S. Dellenbaugh about the second Powell Expedition that went down the Green and Colorado Rivers in 1871 and 1872, the text also spoke of their time spent reconnoitering and triangulating throughout the strip of land that is found north of the Grand Canyon and south of Utah state line, which is what motivated me to return to the Arizona Strip this year so I could could explore some of the peaks, plateaus and highpoints of this expansive region for myself. I also figured that this would make for a great extension of my exploration of the High Plateaus of Utah by continuing south through the Grand Staircase to the plateaus of the Grand Canyon District. So after leaving the Kaibab Plateau behind, Jared and I took off south across the Kanab Plateau from Fredonia on Monday afternoon and set out to spend the rest of the week making our way across the Arizona Strip. However, with temperatures much warmer than usual for this time of the year all over the southwest, we ended up taking it easy, relaxing in the shade at higher elevations as much as possible and having to cancel some of our hiking plans that it was just too hot for. Still, this was a great introduction of the plateaus of the Grand Canyon and I look forward to returning in the future to finish the hikes we couldn’t do this time around.

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.

Unknown Mountains: Return to the Henry Mountains

Laccoliths in the Desert | Friday – Saturday, June 21-22, 2024

The Henry Mountains are a laccolithic mountain range that stand high above a sea of sandstone cut by deep canyons on the Colorado Plateau and were one of the last-surveyed and last-named mountain ranges in the contiguous United States. In 1869 John Wesley Powell made note of the range during his initial voyage down the Colorado River and called them the Unknown Mountains at the time. Then in 1871 he returned to the area on his second trip down the Colorado and renamed them to the Henry Mountains after Joseph Henry, a close friend who was secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Last year I was planning to head back up into the Henry Mountains after Jared and I had spent a nice weekend there in 2022, but other trips came up and I never made it. This year I was determined to get back early in the summer to hike a couple new peaks and highpoints and chose to go this weekend. I left from work on Friday afternoon and made my way to Hanksville, and even though there were a lot of storms throughout the area this afternoon, some which caused flash flooding around Moab and the San Juan River, I managed to miss them all- aside from the wind. It seems that it’s frequently very windy out when I stop in Hanksville, and today was no exception!

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Tag: john wesley powell

Desolation Canyon & Gray Canyon of the Green River

The Grand Canyon: Lees Ferry to the Bright Angel Trail

The Arizona Strip: Peaks, Plateaus & Highpoints

Canyon of Lodore: The Green River in Dinosaurland

Unknown Mountains: Return to the Henry Mountains