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Thread: Upper Colorado River Trip

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    Default Upper Colorado River Trip



    Finally got in a multi-day oar rig trip this year....we floated about 60 miles of the upper Colorado River over 3 days/2nights from near Kremmling, CO to Dotsero, CO where the confluence with the Eagle river is. The first 10 miles or so below Kremmling is Gore Canyon, which is a solid class V whitewater run - I've run it many times in my kayak - and its not suitable for large oar rigs. But starting around mile 10 at what is known as Pumphouse, the remainder of the river is mild class II-III with mostly moving flat water and great fishing. We spent our two nights in a tent along side the river - there is a lot of private property along the river, especially the lower sections near Dotsero - but there are also lots of good dispersed campsites along the banks. I had floated the first section from Pumphouse to Yarmony (about 10 miles) on a day trip previously, but had never traveled further downstream in the area. Its a unique mix of granite canyons, mild rolling mountains (especially compared to other areas in Colo), red rock canyon more reminiscent of western utah canyons, and beautiful farm fields...A few pics...

    Jen at the oars as we passed a restored historic waterwheel - was used for irrigation and not for mill grinding:


    Camp for day 1:


    We saw 3 bald eagles along the trip - and two possible juvenile bald eagles that had not turned white yet. This one was quite content sitting on a rock on the side of the river as we passed:


    Nice scenery:

    Permian aged evaporite deposits along the lower section (known as the Eagle Valley Formation - similar to the Paradox formation east of Moab) :
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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    A nice trip! Thx for the pix.

    I enjoy the Colorado River road route - and would love to see Gore canyon (that the road bypasses).

    The water wheel - where? I've been up/down the road several times and have not seen it. Is it visible from the road? Map URL appreciated.

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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Jim previously posted:
    "The water wheel - where? I've been up/down the road several times and have not seen it. Is it visible from the road? Map URL appreciated."

    some info: https://www.historycolorado.org/location/waterwheel

    here it is on google maps...if you use the satellite image and zoom in you can see it:
    https://www.google.com/maps/place/39....7170714?hl=en
    ___________
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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Cool - thanks. It's between Bond and McCoy (I've poked around Bond with the railroad). Bond is where a rail line peals off and heads north.

    I'll look for it on my next trip through there.

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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Sorry to have missed out on Medano Pass trip, but had some other trip activity going on....As our May Grand Canyon permit was cancelled with C19 issues, we began looking for something to fill in a bit. Did another 3 day Colo river trip...this section, Ruby and Horsethief canyons, is downstream a ways from those posted above. Its a 25-30 mile section (depending on launch location) that goes from near Fruita, CO to Westwater, UT. We've done this section a couple times before, but the online permitting showed some great campsites still available if we stretched the trip a bit to three 3 days, and that also allowed us to do a long hike up Rattlesnake Canyon that we hadn't been able to do before.

    Evening pull in at 1st nights camp (Rattlesnake camp)


    Daybreak day 2 at Rattlesnake camp


    Near the top of Rattlesnake Canyon hike - you can see the river in the distance and can follow the canyon we hiked up:


    On the water:


    nearing camp on later afternoon day 2 - nice monocline structure in the rock cliff:

    If you look close - there is a small collection of big horn sheep in the willows along the bank, and the easiest one to see is a juvenile up on the rock ledge:


    Obligatory boatman shot:


    2nd night camp (Split Rock)
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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    When in doubt go right over Yarmony rock. How was the hot tub? I've kayaked and rafted Pumphouse down to state bridge but never beyond. Looks like a good trip. Have you done Westwater yet? We kayaked Pumphouse one march and were able to walk the diversion tunnel.

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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Swank1975 previously posted:
    "When in doubt go right over Yarmony rock. How was the hot tub? I've kayaked and rafted Pumphouse down to state bridge but never beyond. Looks like a good trip. Have you done Westwater yet? We kayaked Pumphouse one march and were able to walk the diversion tunnel."

    I ran westwater back in the late 70s during low water. Was fun but not particularly technical.
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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Color of boat... BLUE
    (not a repaint)

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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Jim previously posted:
    "Color of boat... BLUE
    (not a repaint)"


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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Swank1975 previously posted:
    "When in doubt go right over Yarmony rock. How was the hot tub? I've kayaked and rafted Pumphouse down to state bridge but never beyond. Looks like a good trip. Have you done Westwater yet? We kayaked Pumphouse one march and were able to walk the diversion tunnel."

    When we did Pumphouse to Dotsero - it was fall of last year and flows were below 1000cfs - so all the whitewater was was pretty unexciting. Have run westwater a couple times - but not in the last 8 years or so. The couple we did this trip with have a westwater permit for Aug and we are invited, but schedule gets tight. We are all headed to Hells Canyon on the Snake river in Idaho in later Aug, and I have a 4wheeling jeep trip in the San Juans right before the permit - not sure it will all fit....
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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Had to leave the ecj5 san juan trip a couple days early as we had a trip on Ruby-Horsethief and Westwater canyons....Its 2 days of flat water scenic floating (which we've done many times and is also posted above) and finally were able to extend the extra day into Westwater. The two sections are permitted by different federal agencies, and the westwater permits are harder to get, but they link together very nicely. Just a few pics....

    the pine gulch fire north of grand junction, CO had been burning for a few days, but it really blew up on Sat....We could see it growing as this pic was taken on Sat.


    some flat water floating and scenery for a couple days...




    the calm before the storm....the morning before heading into the westwater canyon and the series of class III-IV rapids. Plus, the black pre-cambrian metamorphic rocks become prominent in the canyon and they always give an ominous feel....


    into the whitewater...


    the infamous Skull Rapid (at very low flows)...


    Temps were 100F plus....nice to be around water in the desert....


    obligatory shot of Jen and myself...


    It was a great little whitewater warm-up for Hells Canyon on the Snake River in Idaho - headed there next week.
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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Nice looking river scenery! `Always like seeing it.

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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Nice...
    looks like a good time.
    ___________
    In a never ending search for the proper mix of dirt & rock !

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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    This one is not in Colorado, or even on the Colorado River...but a fabulous trip none the less....Hells Canyon on the Snake River near the 3-state intersection of OR, WA and ID.
    One of the best multi-day river river trips in the west is Hells Canyon on the Snake River. It has good water flow all season long - even late into fall. Its beautiful, rugged, remote and a great combination of good beach camping, scenery and whitewater. The launch is at the base of the Hells Canyon Dam, and the first 2 days have some solid class IV whitewater (and some take out on day 3 at Pittsburgh Landing), and the last 2 days have some amazing scenic class II with great camping and the confluence with the main Salmon river. The last day is mostly flatwater paddle out (many bring a little outboard trolling motor to speed the process up, but we did it the hard way). Although the temps can be scorching hot in Aug (110s), it was a bit more pleasant this year with a odd cool front moving through on the staging night (and lots of wind), and then quite a lot of overcast hazy skies keeping the sun baking down a bit (temps still around a 100 - but with water nearby its no big deal).

    We camped the night before launch down in Hells Canyon above the dam (near Oxbow, OR) and an intense wind storm picked up - it sounded like a train horn and I would have thought a tornado in other locals. It blew down a couple trees in the campground - including this one that landed on the picnic table and kitchen/coolers etc of our neighboring group (they had just finished their trip). Luckily, no one was under it when it came down - some broken equipment, but nothing too major. You can see a 2nd one that came down first in the background....


    Some good class IV...not quite a far right as I had hoped, but with the big blue boat it was good.


    A friend oaring the same rapid...the red boat is a bit smaller than mine, but gives some sense of how big the whitewater is....he needed to be further right....the wave stood the boat up on its side to about a 70 degree angle (there is a picture somewhere), but the passenger in the front made a quick move to the 'high-side' to help keep it from going all the way over, but the oarsman was washed into the water on the upstream side...he managed to catch the oar frame as he was going out and was able to climb back in down stream just a bit.


    Some scenery on lower down....


    ___________
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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Looks fun.
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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Nice.

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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    That would be a great trip. My best trip was the Grand in Oct/Nov 2015. It was a 21 day permit with 16 of us. 7 rafts and 2 safety kayakers. Crystal and Lava were both really exciting and everything else was a lot of fun.
             

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    Default Re: Upper Colorado River Trip



    Our Grand trip was cancelled by the NPS this past May due to C19....but we have another trip scheduled for April of next year going 16 days. Assuming we get to go, it will be my 3rd trip down, but Jen's first.
    ___________
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