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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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Kane Springs Canyon & Colorado River Corridor Trails

Moab Meanderings | Saturday & Sunday, February 3-4, 2024

This is the first weekend I would be taking my Jeep out again after having the engine repaired last month, and I didn’t want to stray too far from home or get too deep into the backcountry just yet, so I figured this would be a good opportunity for me to hike some trails along the Colorado River near Moab. Since I’ve already hiked most of the trails on and around Amasa Back, I thought it would be fun to start the weekend by hiking the Captain Ahab and HyMasa Trails, both of which did not even exist the last time I hiked the Amasa Back Trail (Cliffhanger) from Kane Springs Canyon. I left home early on Saturday morning and drove through some patchy fog along I-70 in Utah and then made my way over to the trailhead along Kane Creek before sunrise.

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The Rim Trails at Dead Horse Point State Park

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Although I originally had a different and more local trip planned for this weekend, which I’ll hopefully be able to get back to in early December, the weather forecast made me reconsider those plans on Friday since it was predicted to start raining on Saturday afternoon and continue all through Sunday. With a partly cloudy sky in the forecast for Saturday morning I decided to get up early and head on over to Dead Horse Point State Park where I would hopefully be able to catch a nice sunrise from the main overlook and then could spend the rest of the morning hiking the remainder of the trails in the park that I had not been on before, which consisted of a loop of the East Rim Trail and the West Rim Trail along with a couple of shorter spur trails leading to overlooks along the way. A few years back Diane and I had spent a nice weekend mountain biking all of the Intrepid Trails in the park and I’ve been meaning to get back to finish up the hiking trails, so I’ve been looking forward to a return visit.

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The Colorado River: Take-Out Beach to Potash

Memorial Day | Monday, May 29, 2023 | Average CFS: 32,620

Let’s try something different this time around. I’m going to give the Artificial Intelligence from ChatGPT a whirl to see how well it can write an introduction for this Trip Report where Jackson, Amy and I floated the Colorado River near Moab from Take-Out Beach to Potash. Let’s see how well it does…

In the realm of outdoor exploration, the allure of embarking on a new adventure is a constant driving force. Such was the case when Jackson and I found ourselves at a crossroads, our original plan to conquer The Chute of Muddy Creek in the San Rafael Swell thwarted by insufficient water levels. Undeterred, we sought an alternative that would satiate our thirst for exploration. And so it was, fueled by a shared sense of curiosity, that we set our sights on a stretch of the mighty Colorado River between Take-Out Beach and Potash. For Jackson, this particular section held a special significance, as it was the sole uncharted territory between picturesque Palisade and the vast expanse of Lake Powell. To make this adventure even more memorable, Jackson’s wife, Amy, joined us, bringing her own sense of excitement and camaraderie to our expedition. With the sun-drenched waters beckoning us, we embarked on a journey that promised to immerse us in the wonders of the Colorado River and create memories that would last a lifetime.

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Moab Meanderings: Arches on Amasa Back

Sunday, March 12, 2023

I was originally planning to go hiking on Saturday this weekend, but the rain in the forecast made me change those plans late in the week. So instead, I opted to stayed home on Saturday to work on my Jeep a little and start getting prepared for an upcoming backpacking trip. The weather forecast was looking better on Sunday, so after moving the clocks up an hour for Daylight Savings Time I got up early and drove down to Moab for a day hike on Amasa Back. I had hiked onto Amasa Back with Diane over the 2021 Christmas weekend, but we didn’t make it as far as I would have liked that day, so I was hoping to reach a couple new arches this time. As I drove through The Portal and along the Colorado River shortly before sunrise, I could tell that spring break had definitely arrived since all of the campsites were occupied, which was not the case just a few short weeks ago. When I reached the trailhead at the mouth of Kane Springs Canyon I started hiking up the Jackson Trail as the sun came up over the cliffs. It was turning out to be a very beautiful morning!