Here are some of our favorite photos from the trip (each photo is a thumbnail linked to a higher quality picture.):
1) Ruby Ranch, Green River, Utah, May 14, 2025 - After a two hour drive from Moab to get to the Ruby Ranch put-in and then time spent packing our canoe and eating lunch, it was early afternoon when we officially started the river trip. Ruby Ranch is at mile 97.1 on the Green River so we would end up paddling right at 100 miles over the next nine days.
2) Green River, May 14, 2025 - The river level was around 5600 cfm when we put-in and the water was moving about 3 miles an hour. However, there was an afternoon breeze so we had to paddle continuously both to maintain speed and to stay pointed down river. We realized pretty quickly this wasn't going to be a leisurely float trip.
3) Green River, May 14, 2025 - It was obvious right away that the scenery was going to be amazing. Tall red rock walls on both sides of the river are why Powell named this area Labyrinth Canyon. Various rivers, streams and creeks have cut side canyons down to the river so the high walls open up periodically to provide vistas. John and Andre were doing the trip in their personal sea-kayaks while we were paddling the 14" Grumann aluminum rental canoe.
4) Trin Alcove Bend, Green River, May 14, 2025 - Just seven miles downriver from our put-in is the Trin Alcove where three side canyons all join together right at a bend in the river. We paddled a short distance up the creek that comes out of these canyons and found a campsite. We shared this site with two other pairs of paddlers who had put in with us at Ruby Ranch.
5) Trin Alcove Bend, Green River, May 14, 2025 - Our first evening setting up camp went smoothly and it was in a beautiful spot!
6) Trin Alcove Bend, Green River, May 14, 2025 - Doing a river trip in the late spring has a couple of advantages of doing it during the summer. First and foremost, is the weather. Temperatures for our mid-May trip were perfect. Warm during the day but cooling down a little at night so sleeping in our tent was comfortable. Second, were the wildflowers. There was a wide variety of flowers blooming this time of year and all of our hikes were highlighted by seeing the colorful blossoms contrasted against the desert sand. (The major downside of doing a river trip this time of the year is the water level. At ~6000 cfm the river was just high enough to have covered most of the sandbars but still low enough to be well below the high water shelf. This meant that finding camping spots was a challenge. It also meant we had to paddle, rather than float, our way down the river as the water wasn't flowing fast enough to just carry the boat along with the current.)
7) Trin Alcove Bend, Green River, May 14, 2025 - Getting to Trin Alcove early in the evening and getting our camp set up quickly gave us plenty of time to explore the side canyons that have given this spot its name. We did a lovely hike up one of the canyons and quickly realized getting to see these side canyons that are only accessible from the river would be one of the highlights of this trip.
8) Green River, May 15, 2025 - Our first full day of paddling took us something like 15 miles down the river. This put us square in the middle of Labyrinth Canyon and it was stunningly beautiful! As it turned out, the first night was the only night where we shared a campsite with other paddlers. In fact, other than a handful of cases were we passed boats tied up on the riverside, we didn't see anyone else the rest of our trip!
9) Green River, May 16, 2025 - Our camp for our second night was on one of the few places where there was still a sandbar above the water line. We pitched our tent right beside the river. This turned out to be the easiest place to beach the boats for unloading/reloading but had the downside of there being no shade. The later afternoon sun was beating down on the sand so we spent a couple of hours huddling in the tamarisk bushes trying to stay out of the sun. The afternoon breeze also meant the fine sand was blown onto everything so we were dealing with grit everhwhere from the tent to our teeth!
10) Bowknot Bend, Green River, May 16, 2025 - As expected in a desert we didn't see a whole lot of wildlife on this trip. The most frequent site were the many species of lizards that make the canyons their home. Second most common were all the birds - ducks, geese, songbirds, hawks, etc. We also spotted a few river mammals which could have been either beavers or river otters but it was tough to distinquish which with only their heads visible above the silty water.
11) Bowknot Bend Viewpoint, Green River, May 16, 2025 - Bowknot Bend is a big 8 mile loop where the river turns back on itself. We tied up here and did a hike up onto the thin wall that separates the two ends of the "knot" to enjoy the view.
12) Bowknot Bend Viewpoint, Green River, May 16, 2025 - The .7 mile long trail climbs 500 feet from the river side up to a notch in the wall that allows you to look down onto the river on the opposite side. The view was fantastic and well worth doing the hike.
13) Green River, May 16, 2025 - A little ways downriver from Bowknot Bend we found a spot where we could make the climb up onto the high water shelf. It was a workout getting all our gear out of the canoe and up to the campsite but the site itself was nice with shade and a scenic view out over the river.
14) Green River, May 16, 2025 - Relaxing at our campsite, after a day on the river, hanging out with our friends John and Andre was definitely another highlight of the trip.
15) Green River, May 17, 2025 - The night sky out in the desert is awesome. Photos can never do justice to it. This evening, just as I was going to bed, I spotted the almost-full moon peaking over the cliffs on the opposite side of the river. It was a stunning view and I spent some time just enjoying the peacefulness of the moment before digging out my phone to take a photo.
16) Horsethief Canyon, Green River, May 17, 2025 - We stopped for lunch at Horsethief Canyon where we found a perfect picnic spot in the shade of a big rock that was decorated with petroglyphs. The area around our picnic site was exploding with bright pink cactus blossums and orange globemallow flowers.
17) Fort Bottom, Green River, May 18, 2025 - After a beautiful day on the river we started looking for a campsite in the late afternoon and discovered this section of Stillwater Canyon was slim on spots when the water was at this level. After having to pass up a few sites that were marked on our map but needed higher water to access we finally pulled in at Fort Bottom. The waterside ledge that is the entry is directly on a water drainage but the weather looked good so we crossed our fingers and set up our tents. It was a lovely spot with the pitched literally on the edge of the ledge and the river running just below us.
19) Fort Bottom, Green River, May 18, 2025 - When we woke up in the morning there were grey clouds overhead and a little drizzle starting to fall. We packed up all our gear but then did a hike before getting back in the boats.
19) Fort Bottom, Green River, May 18, 2025 - The trail climbed up to the top of the butte overlooking the river where there is an Ancestral Puebloan ruin that looks like a stone tower. Along the way we passed an old pioneer cabin that is on the ledge just downriver from where we camped.
20) Fort Bottom, Green River, May 18, 2025 - The skies started to break up as we hiked and by the time we returned to the boats we had blue sky overhead.
21) Anderson Bottom, Green River, May 18, 2025 - We didn't get many photos for this day of paddling because the clouds returned in the mid-day and then turned into waves of thunderstorms for the afternoon. At one point a storm forced us into the riverside tamarisks beside a big eddy pool to wait out some passing lightning. As we huddled in our rain gear while rain bucketed down we looked upriver and saw a most magical sight: The rain was pouring off the White Rim cliffs in over a dozen waterfalls dropping hundreds of feet down to the river. When a gust of wind would blow through it would pick up the falling water lift it into the sky like massive bird feathers turning the entire White Rim into a giant bird's wing. Stunning! (...but sadly, no photo.) After this storm passed we paddled across the river and tied up our boats at Upper Anderson Bottom where we set up our camp for the night.
22) Anderson Bottom, Green River, May 19, 2025 - We had more rain in the evening but woke up the next day to a lovely morning with big fluffy clouds overhead. We packed up all our gear and again headed out to do a morning hike. Our goal was a slot canyon on the far side of Anderson Bottom but there wasn't a well defined trail so we had to do some exploring to find the drainage that led to the slot canyon.
23) Anderson Bottom, Green River, May 19, 2025 - Anderson Bottom is muddy when it rains but dries quickly when the sun is out. All that moisture means the whole area is covered in wildflowers, many of which are growing out of the cracks that form when the mud dries. There are also sections of Anderson Bottom made up of cyanobacteria that is a living soil crust (which we were careful not to step on!). Unfortunately, as we neared the slot canyon that was our goal some dark clouds drifted overhead and so we scrapped our plan to go up into the tight drainage. As it turned out the clouds passed by without raining but our "Better safe than sorry" attitude meant we missed seeing the slot canyon.
24) Valentine Bottom, Green River, May 19, 2025 - The section of Stillwater Canyon that we paddled this day has a series of Ancestral Puebloan ruins in the underhangs right above the river so we to go spot various grainary and house ruins as we pass through the canyon around Valentine Bottom.
25) Green River, May 19, 2025 - This section of the river also has a number of "named" rock formations ("Candlestick Tower" and "The Sphinx" for example) which we also had fun spotting. Our goal for the afternoon was Turks Head which is a promenient formation that the river makes a big loop around.
26) Turks Head, Green River, May 19, 2025 - When we got to the side of the river where a tiny hiking trail climbs up from the river we found that two Ranger motorboats were tied up there so we continued about half a mile downriver until we found a nice campsite.
27) Turks Head, Green River, May 19, 2025 - After setting up camp we did some exploring and found a challenging trail leading up the wall of the cliff behind where we'd pitched our tents. We decided to explore further and this lead all the way to the top of the cliff and then became a hiking trail all the way to Turks Head. We had a fantastic evening hike. We didn't spot the Ancestral Puebloan ruins nor the petroglyphs that are apparently in the overhangs around Turks Head but we did find huge fields covered with rose quartz, jasper, onyx and other stunning rocks. Additionally, there were massive sandstone boulders arranged in interesting orientations looking like ancient European stone circles.
28) Horse Canyon, May 20, 2025 - Our next day on the river was a particularly lovely day. The recent rain had nearly doubled the river's flow which meant we finally had a strong enough current to just float for parts of the day. We also had a glorious, cloudless sky which was particularly nice during the cool morning air. We mixed paddling and drifting all morning before turning off the river to explore a side drainage mid-day. We paddled up the creek until it shrunk down to trickle where we pulled up the boats for lunch.
29) Horse Canyon, May 20, 2025 - After lunch we hiked further up the drainage until we hit a cliff. This was probably an amazing waterfall two days ago during the storm but was just a tiny little dribble of water now. We all enjoyed seeing all the different types of rock in the dry creek bed as we hiked.
30) Horse Canyon, May 20, 2025 - We also found an overhang where there were poisonous Sacred Datura plants flowering. Beautiful!
31) Green River, May 20, 2025 - The afternoon was warm but with the cliffs towering overhead we were able to drift along in the shade in many areas.
32) Point In The Bend, May 20, 2025 - In the evening we found a fantastic campsite right across the river from a gorgeous rock formation. We had to climb a steep cliff to get to it but the view was worth it!
33) Point In The Bend, May 20, 2025 - We set up our tent near the river so we got to listen to the gurgling of the water all night long.
34) Point In The Bend, May 21, 2025 - Not a bad view straight out the door of the tent!
35) Point In The Bend, May 21, 2025 - After packing up our gear in the morning we went out to explore another trail we'd found near our campsite. This trail appeared to climb all the way up about of the canyon going up a drainage just downriver from our campsite. We climbed about halfway up but as we climbed up out of the canyon we got into the late morning sunshine which was very warm so we retreated back down into the shade of the canyon.
36) Water Canyon, May 21, 2025 - This was our last day of paddling and we had made great time during the previous week so we had plenty of time to stop and explore another side canyon. Just before we got to the confluence point where the Green and Colorado Rivers join we turned off to follow a creek up a side canyon. This creek had undercut a section of canyon making for really neat section paddling underneath the wall looking at a variety of different sedementary layers as we floated past..
37) Water Canyon, May 21, 2025 - Once the creek got too shallow for the boats we beached, ate lunch and then put on our hiking boots to explore the drainage further on foot. The amazing overhang continued which meant we could hike in the shade!
38) Water Canyon, May 21, 2025 - Just like the previous day's drainage, this one ended at another dry waterfall. We tried to climb up this one to see if we could continue exploring up the canyon but the footing was just a little too tricky to risk it.
39) Confluence Point, Green & Colorado Rivers, May 21, 2025 - The official end of the Green River is this spot where it joins the Colorado River. We needed to find a campsite downriver from this confluence that met the requirements for the jet boat that would be picking us up the next day (4 feet deep water, 15 feet offshore). As a result we continued down the Colorado looking for an appropriate campsite.
40) Spanish Bottom, Colorado River, May 21, 2025 - Four miles down the Colorado River from the confluence is Catarack Canyon. This is a narrow, formidable section of river with Class V rapids - not a place we wanted to go. We started to get nervous after we'd gone three miles down the river and passed the big "Dangerous Rapids in 1 mile" sign without having found a campsite. Fortunately, the Upper Spanish Bottom campsite was accessible, empty and met the requirements for the jet boat so we breathed a big sign of relief as we beached the boats on a sandbar there.
41) Spanish Bottom, Colorado River, May 21, 2025 - In addition to meeting all our needs for a campsite Spanish Bottom was also covered with gorgeous cactus that were in full bloom.
42) Spanish Bottom, Colorado River, May 22, 2025 - The next morning the jet boat showed up to pick us up right on time. We loaded all the boats on the roof rack of the jet boat and then spent two hours zooming up the Colorado River to the Potash Road boat ramp near Moab. A fun end to a great trip!
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