Rafting the Green River in Utah
I am reading one of my Christmas books about the Colorado River and it inspired me to post a few memories about our Utah rafting days.
In 1985, the seven of us rafted the great canyons of the Green River in Utah- Desolation Canyon and Gray Canyon - in two rafts filled with our camping gear and enormous quantities of food. At the end of the weeklong adventure, we arrived at the town of Green River just as our rations were depleted.
To be exact there were eight of us – not seven! Jim and I, Liz, Tisha, Jim, Jeff, and Lyle. Katie was the eighth, carried securely but quite prominently in her mother's belly.
As we ran the river, we read excerpts from the journals of John Wesley Powell's 1871 expedition. While surging through the rapids, son Jim imitated Powell whose lower arm was missing, pretending to be lashed to the raft as Powell had been on his famous journey one hundred sixteen years before ours.
Several other summers we rafted the quiet, magnificent Desolation Canyon on the Green River, whose wonders called us back time and again. It was here that Bob Strain introduced us to rafting. One year we were joined by Angel, John and Carolyn. We launched at Green River, Utah. We staged a vehicle at the takeout at Mineral Bottom, where a single lane dirt road winds precipitously from the canyon rim to the river’s edge. Our journey ended where Stillwater Canyon begins, because there was no way back had we continued into Stillwater.
After Stillwater, the Green meets the Colorado at what is known as the Confluence. Then it immediately enters Cataract Canyon. In 1984 Jim and I were packed for departure to raft Cataract Canyon with friends from Albuquerque who owned larger rafts than ours. Just before we left home, the National Park Service closed the river and oversaw an airlift of rafters from the canyon, due to an enormous flow of 100,000 cubic feet per second.
Years later while staying with Tom Swetnam in Jemez Springs I read a book in his library about Cataract Canyon and it scared me so much that I wondered if we would have survived. I am not certain our companions had the skill to carry it off. Later after we moved to Oregon, we safely rafted the Salmon in Idaho and the Rogue in Oregon with these friends.
Jim and I rafted the San Juan River several times. It is a tributary of the Colorado River which enters the Grand Canyon below Cataract Canyon.
We contemplated rafting the main Colorado River below Lee's Ferry, but it required a guided trip. We weren't sure we would enjoy that. Also, being the frugal (stingy) people we were, we decided it was too expensive. I look back on that decision with regret.