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San Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel RiverSan Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River

San Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River

Caddis Flats to Beaver Creek & Deep Creek to Down Valley Park | Average CFS: 675
Saturday & Sunday, June 7-8, 2025

Late last year Jackson and I decided to take advantage of Mild To Wild’s annual Black Friday sale and booked a trip on the upper San Miguel River for this Sunday with hopes that there would be enough water to run it. Luckily, even though the San Juan Mountains had a pretty poor snow year this winter, there was still enough water to raft the San Miguel at this time, so we planned to head down on Saturday morning to float through San Miguel Canyon from Caddis Flats to Beaver Creek in our inflatable kayaks the day before. A few years back Jackson and I had floated through Norwood Canyon just downstream from here and we were looking forward to checking out these other sections of the upper San Miguel River this weekend.

CONTINUE READINGSan Miguel Canyon and the Upper San Miguel River
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Norwood Canyon of the San Miguel RiverNorwood Canyon of the San Miguel River

Norwood Canyon of the San Miguel River

San Miguel Canyon: Beaver Creek to the Piñon Green Truss Bridge
Saturday, June 12, 2021 | Average CFS: 608

Unfortunately, this is only the first river trip of the year for me, and it feels long overdue! I was really hoping to get in a few more river trips this spring, but thanks to the dismal snowpack and poor spring runoff, things just haven’t worked out for me this year. The smaller desert rivers that I wanted to float did not have enough water and I did not win any permits from the lotteries this year, so lately I have been keeping an eye on some of the rivers in western Colorado hoping that there would be enough snowmelt to run something. This past week it was looking like the San Miguel River was going to be our best bet, and since we had a really nice time on the lower San Miguel River and Hanging Flume Canyon last year, Jackson and I thought it would be nice to check out a new section through Norwood Canyon this time. There is not a lot of info about this stretch of the San Miguel available, but we found enough bits and pieces online that helped us figure out the logistics of the trip. It was going to be another hot weekend on the Colorado Plateau, so we were looking forward to keeping cool on the San Miguel River!

CONTINUE READINGNorwood Canyon of the San Miguel River
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North Fork of the Gunnison RiverNorth Fork of the Gunnison River

North Fork of the Gunnison River

Paonia River Park to the Gunnison Forks Recreation Site
Independence Day | Thursday, July 4, 2019

This year for the Fourth of July I was looking to go on one last river trip before I started heading into the mountains for the summer season. Since I only had one day off from work for the holiday I wanted to go somewhere close to home and on a river that was still not running too high, which was hard to find this year! On Wednesday afternoon Jackson, Chris and I decided that we would give the North Fork of the Gunnison River a try from the Paonia River Park to its confluence with the Gunnison River. The North Fork of the Gunnison is formed just below the Paonia Reservoir by the confluence of of Muddy Creek (not that Muddy Creek) and Anthracite Creek, which originates in The Raggeds of the West Elk Mountains. Since we have already floated most of the Gunnison River from Pleasure Park to Whitewater, we thought it would be nice to work our way further up the North Fork and finally check it out.

CONTINUE READINGNorth Fork of the Gunnison River
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