Floating the Green River

This blog post is very different from my normal style. For my regular readers, feel free to ignore it. It’s my attempt to try to capture some helpful information about paddle powered trips on the flatwater sections of the Green River in Utah. 

The flatwater portion of the Green River is commonly included in lists of the best flatwater float trips in the United States and for good reason. Amazingly enough, most of these lists seem to think you should be in a hurry. It’s 120 miles from the town of Green River to the confluence and I’ve seen at least one magazine publisher that says you could do it in 3 days without providing any of the caveats.

If you’re going to do the Green, you have some choices to make. Spring, Summer, or Fall?Canoe, Kayak, SUP, or Raft? Labyrinth Canyon, Stillwater Canyon, or both? Green River State Park, Crystal Geyser, Ruby Ranch, or Mineral Bottom launch point? Solo, small group, or large group? Freeze dried or gourmet? How Fast? Obviously, personal preferences, finances, time availability, and skills are going to impact your choices.

Which Season?Lots of people do the Green in the spring because they like the faster currents that come with the higher water levels. You can check current or historic water levels at Green River and now also at Mineral Bottom. The downside of spring is fewer campsites since you’ll be limited to just high-water sites. Summer is HOT but many people do it then because that’s when they have vacation. Fall is my personal preference. Water levels are typically low and flow is slower but sandbar camps are plentiful and most of the bugs are gone.

Boat Choice? I started doing the Green 20 years ago. The first couple years, I used a large whitewater kayak because that’s what I had. For a couple years after that, I used wood strip sea kayaks because they had more space and speed, but since then I’ve used a solo or a tandem canoe since it’s much easier to haul the groover* in a canoe than a kayak. In the past couple years, we’ve seen an increasing number of stand-up paddleboards. Only once did we see a solo, self-supported SUP. Usually it’s a small group of SUPs with a canoe or two to help haul their gear. It’s not unusual to see rafts, but… if you see a raft on the Stillwater section, they are headed to the whitewater of Cataract Canyon and taking out near Hite on Lake Powell. *All feces must be hauled out using an approved toilet system in accordance with your river permit.

Which Section? John Wesley Powell named Labyrinth and Stillwater canyons during his explorations of the Green and Colorado rivers in the mid 1800’s. Labyrinth Canyon is the upper section and includes the famous Bow Knot bend. It is managed by the BLM and requires a free permit. Stillwater Canyon technically starts below Mineral Bottom, but the Mineral Bottom boat ramp is commonly used to differentiate between the two sections. The Stillwater Canyon section flows through Canyonlands National Park. The Park starts at approximately river mile 47 and requires a permit issued by the NPS. There’s no charge for the flatwater day use permit, but the flatwater overnight permit carries a $30 reservation fee plus $20 per person.

Mineral Bottom can be a zoo!

Which Launch Point? There are four launch points on the flatwater portion of the Green River.

1. Green River State Park in Green River, Utah is 120 river miles from the confluence or 68 miles from Mineral Bottom. There is a small fee for launching here.
2. Crystal Geyser is five miles below the state park on river left. It’s actually cold water that erupts a couple times a day. People launching here add about 18 miles to a Labyrinth trip but avoid the fees that Ruby Ranch charges. The vast majority of the river banks between Green River and Ruby are privately owned.
3. Ruby Ranch is a historic private ranch down a long and bumpy road but it won’t be the only long and bumpy road you might see. They currently charge $10 per boat and $5 per person to launch here, but it’s the launch point closest to where the canyon starts to rise from the river. Since we enjoy the Green River for the canyons, this is our preferred place to launch if we’re doing the Labyrinth.
4. Mineral Bottom is the take-out for people doing the Labyrinth Canyon section and the put-in for people just doing the Stillwater Canyon section. The years that we’ve done both sections it has been a mandatory stop since we’ve had people joining our group at that point. Mineral Bottom is reached by a long and bumpy road that also includes a very steep, narrow, switchback section that provides great views of a bit of the river.

Group Size - The first time I did a section of the Green there were just two of us using whitewater boats. The next year we invited anyone that wanted to go from the local paddling club and ended up with 10 on the trip. Typically we’ve had 4 to 6 on a trip which keeps it small enough to be able to fit into some smaller campsites. The Labyrinth permit is limited to 25 people. The Canyonlands permit is limited to 40 which seems totally insane to me, but then enjoying the quiet while watching the shadows on the cliffs is what draws me back nearly every year. Every year we do see solos on the river and I’ve thought about it at times but I’ve never had my “must invites” turn down a trip invitation.

Food Style - We’ve done gourmet including barbequed ribeye steaks at Anderson Bottom one year and fresh made cinnamon rolls at the confluence another year, but tend towards boxed or canned meals from the grocery store. Most trips will be seen hauling ice chests but we’ve always gone lighter and smaller since I’m lazy and don’t want to handle a bunch of extra stuff.

How Fast depends on you. We clearly choose to travel slower than most groups. I’ve seen lots of groups planning 20 mile days in the fall but we enjoy a slower pace. Our trip pace has slowed down over the years and we’ll plan in at least one weather day (or two or three) since we’ve discovered breaking down and setting up camp is work that really doesn’t have to happen every day. Camps that provide some shade and a view and a place to hike will get a layover day if possible. Our latest trip was the 52 mile Stillwater canyon section. We took 9 days (including the jetboat shuttle day) while most groups we saw on the river were doing it in 5 days or so, including the upstream shuttle.

Since camps are first come and sandbars change every year, you may need a plan B and plan C. Since we always do the trip in late September to early October, we tend to avoid highwater (ledge) camps since they’re more work to get the gear from the boats to the camp and back. Sandbars are typically our first choice for overnight stops but I’ll admit to having a short list of highwater camps that we love, especially if we have a spare weather day to spend.

While I approach this (as do most people) from a paddle powered perspective, it is possible to see an occasional outboard on a jon boat or a raft or the NPS J-rigs. For years, the towns of Green River and Moab sponsored the Friendship Cruise over Memorial Day weekend which involved power boats going down the Green to the confluence and then up the Colorado to the Potash boat ramp outside of Moab. The Friendship Cruise website hasn’t been updated in years so I don’t know the current status. 

I’ve done one or more sections of the Green 16 times in the past 20 years. Twice I’ve seen someone paddling upstream, once on the Green river and once on the Colorado. The guy on the Green (20 years ago) had paddled to the confluence and was working his way back to Mineral Bottom when we saw him. I have no idea how many days it took him!

Helpful Sources The Belknap's Waterproof Canyonlands River Guide seems to be the default, but I prefer the much larger RiverMaps Guide to the Colorado & Green Rivers in the Canyonlands of Utah & Colorado because of the much better maps. The National Geographic Trails Illustrated map #210 of Canyonlands is reasonably useful, but only for Mineral Bottom down. It will give you the big picture, but the scale leaves you wanting more detail. Kelsey’s River Guide to Canyonlands National Park and Vicinity has abominable maps but in some ways it's my favorite because of the excellent information about the human history in the canyons. For example, he tells about the construction of the Mineral Bottom (Horsethief trail) road, the loss of a D8 Caterpillar while ferrying across the river at the lower end of Woodruff Bottom, and points out spots where uranium adits and mines were located. (The four links in this paragraph all point to Amazon. I do NOT get any benefit from Amazon.)

Shuttles: There are several services that support Labyrinth Canyon. Some have equipment rental as well as shuttle service while others provide just shuttle of your personal vehicle. They can be located wtih a quick Google search. There are two permit holders for jet boat services from Spanish Bottom and the confluence back to Moab. The past couple of years, one of those operators has not operated in the fall low-water season. I’ve always used Tex’s Riverways for our Stillwater Canyon trips and can’t say enough good stuff about them. The jet boat back up the Colorado to Moab is the cherry to top off a wonderful Green River trip full of new memories.

Sunshine on the River

After my business was done in Algodones on Thursday morning, I headed north on the California side of the river to Senator Wash to do a little paddling and geocaching. In addition to the Imperial Dam Long Term Visitors Area, there's a BLM 'campground' at Squaw Lake, but it looks more like a parking lot. I elected to camp on the North Shore which is also a BLM campground with fees but without designated campsites.

The long gravel drive with a couple reasonably steep sections does a good job of dissuading too many people from coming this direction. There were several good waterfront sites on Senator Wash Reservoir available when I was there. $15 per night with a 50% discount for the senior pass. The sunrise was pretty special, too.

Friday morning I started back around to Fisher's Landing on the Arizona side of the river.

This is the 11th year that Helen has done her Friends of Helen trip over MLK weekend (and the 9th time I've done the trip.) We've always used Fishers Landing as our takeout point, but this year their ramp was closed for construction. We still used their parking area for organizing our shuttle.

The shuttle to Walter's Camp is right at 100 miles long - not a fast shuttle!

Sunrise at Walter's Camp. I elected to take the kayak this year because it's hung in the garage for two years without getting wet.

Much of this section of the Colorado river is surrounded by wildlife refuges that do not allow camping. Walter's Camp is on a BLM lease across the river from Cibola National Wildlife Refuge. Downstream, Imperial NWR is the predominate land manager until you get to Picacho State Recreation Area (PSRA) on the California side of the river.

I didn't take many pictures on the river since my only camera was my phone. As is normal for me on this trip, I launch early and enjoy the solitude on the river. The first day is a bit over 15 miles to the PSRA 4-S boat-in camp.

For the tenth year, trash can turkey was featured for dinner our first night. This year there was a fair amount of breeze so we leveraged the fire pits as wind breaks. Two 14 pound turkeys were done in less than an hour and 45 minutes.

As the sun sets at 4-S, the light turns golden on the bluff across the river, but I was too busy with the turkeys to get a picture at the optimal time.

Instead, I settled for sunrise. Typically, I don't carry a cell phone on this trip, but this year, the cell phone was my sole source of decent photos. I was really surprised to see that I got enough signal here to post a picture to Instagram.

The second day on the water is the short day, with less than seven miles from 4-S to the group boat-in site at PSRA. We had breeze most days, but typically it was a tailwind.

I ducked into the entrance to Taylor Lake. I would have gone further but I didn't bring my GPS on this trip. There are two or three geocaches in the Taylor Lake area that I may find one of these days. The coots love the reeds. They eat them off at the water level and then hide in/under the reeds.

I was going to fix dinner, but friends were making chicken enchiladas in their dutch oven and I got to share. Most excellent!

Sunset over the group site at Picacho. In addition to the group site, the other advantage of this location is that the campground has solar heated showers. Bliss!

No sunrise pictures on the last day since the camp is hidden from the horizon, but coming out from the side channel to the river, it looked like another beautiful day.

I was surprise by a bobcat trying to catch a coot (who surprised me when it jumped in the water right beside me) as I drifted on down the river towards our takeout.

Since the boat ramp at Fisher Landing was undergoing heavy maintenance, we took out at Martinez Lake for the first time, and then walked over to Fisher's Landing to pick up the truck.

Yet another wonderful trip and a chance to meet some new friends.

Best of all, I got one more sunset in the rear view mirror just before I got home.

The boat's been washed and hung up, the gear is washed and put away, and now it's time to start thinking about Quartzsite friends.

More River Time

The group of twelve that camped behind us said they were staying two nights but loaded up and left about 3:30 p.m. the second day. It was really interesting to watch them. I would have been very uncomfortable launching a group of that size that late in the day, but it seemed to work for them.

After a quiet second night at Arizona Hot Springs, we headed down stream. Our plan was to visit viewpoints along the river for an earth cache and then set up camp at Cranes Nest Wash (Mile 55.9) for a couple nights.

Unlike our first day, we had glassy water for the move from Arizona Hot Springs to Cranes Nest. I love paddling into reflections!

I love some of the geology in Cranes Nest Wash. This is an area that is typically ignored by folks on the river. Part of the wash has beautifully layered rock, with the layers running vertically. I especially liked this rock that we thought should be called the Eye of the Needle.

Further up the wash we found water sculpted pour overs

and pot holes. Given how rarely there is any water flowing in the wash, it's hard to imagine how many years it took to sculpt these rocks.

I loved the way that the conglomerate is all shaped by the water flows, leaving all the rocks even.

The lower part of the wash is in a wilderness area. There is a road that comes part way down the wash. At about .6 miles from the river is a nice sign indicating a camping area and No Target Shooting. Down the wash a bit further, where the road ends, is another sign, clearly used as a target!

By the end of time on the river, I was looking pretty grubby.

Unlike when we first started paddling this section of river, there is now a 32 page guide book printed on waterproof paper that points out many of the highlights. It's also available as a large pdf file from the Boulder City library.

We were blessed with another paddling day of light breezes. Easy paddling but hard to get reflection pictures.

We took out below the boat ramp at Willow Beach Marina. (about River Mile 52.5)

This section of the river was recently highlighted in Backpacker Magazine. Unfortunately, that article had lots of incorrect information.

There is no fee for camping in the Black Canyon but there is a $22 fee for launching at the dam. That fee is reduced if you have a Senior Pass. In addition to the launch fee, you MUST pay a shuttle service to launch you at the dam. That price varies depending on if you are providing your own boats or renting boats or using a guide.

This section can also be paddled upstream, launching from Willow Beach Marina, saving the cost and missing the experience of launching at the dam.

If you want to launch at the dam, I highly recommend our friends at Desert Adventures in Boulder City, NV or Desert River Outfitters in Bullhead City, AZ.

River Time

Usually, we manage to spend a week or two on the Green River in Utah in the fall. This year, I was too late to get reservations for the jet boat shuttle so we decided to spend a few days on the Black Canyon section of the Colorado River below Hoover Dam.

We figured out which week Kathy could get off work, loaded the boats and gear, and the three of us headed northwest.

We did a couple geocaches along the way including a virtual at the trailhead for the trail to Arizona Hot Springs. We debated for about 30 seconds about carrying the boats in from here but decided the 3.5 mile hike with our boats and gear was not practical.

The weather on Monday morning looked good if you believe this picture, but the reality was that there was over 20 mph of wind blowing. At least it was a tailwind, but the canoe was squirrely to say the least!

While this section of the river is typically a day trip, we've been known to spend more time. This time, we decided to break the 11 mile trip into three pieces, spending two nights at each camp.

When we arrived at Arizona Hot Springs (Mile 59.7,) there were already a bunch of people scattered out but we found some spots tucked into alcoves with protection from the wind.

Just about the time we figured things were going to settle down for the evening, a group of 12 arrived and decided that our chosen spot needed some very close neighbors.

After breakfast the next morning, we headed up through the hot springs towards some petroglyphs. We visited these with Suzanne over two years ago but I wanted to go back to fulfill the requirements of a virtual cache located nearby.

Kathy and I elected to use our water shoes for the hike while BJ decided to switch into hiking shoes once we got above the hot springs.

The petroglyphs we saw last time were still there.

We spotted more as we continued up the wash. These are quite different from the petroglyphs we typically see in Utah. I'm not sure if this is proof of space aliens or that Halloween has been celebrated longer than I thought.

After the petroglyphs it was back through the hot springs and down the ladder to camp. I just couldn't resist this shot of BJ descending the ladder. Usually we're too busy making sure to not slip to take a picture.

Mountain Views

We left Newberg and headed to Hosmer Lake. One of the Tres Amigas was campground hosting there and we couldn't pass up a chance to see her. We'd stayed in the area a couple years ago and had fallen in love with Hosmer Lake. This time, we stayed in South Campground at Hosmer Lake. Diana suggested for our first paddle that we paddle Sparks Lake for even better views.

BJ took Turk in her boat. In the background, you can see imagine the lovely view of South Sister. We had fun teasing Diana about her weather selection, but the reality was it was her day off.

We did spot a couple bald eagles (the upper one is an immature bald eagle, I think) sitting in a tree,

and a couple very nice boat-in campsites. This one is hidden in the trees behind the canoe.

This one was much more open with a view across the large southern body of Sparks Lake.

Turk was not fussing, but he was making it very clear he wasn't consulted on this idea. If looks could kill...

As we paddled to the northern body of the lake, the clouds were taking on some definition, but still a long ways from letting the mountains show off. Access to the northern section of the lake is seasonal. Right now the lake was high enough that we could slide through the shallow spot without a portage.

Diana got a picture of the three of us just before it started to rain. Knowing we were planning to paddle on another day, we decided there was no need to continue on day one.

The first view out the window of the trailer on the morning of our second paddle showed frost on the table and fog obscuring the lake.

BJ and I were peeling off layers before we launched. The locals thought it was shirt sleeve weather. This time it would be a 'ranger talk' tour of Hosmer Lake. Of course, the rangers were the only ones not wearing PFDs. I could suggest a reason why, but they were both really nice folks.

South Sister and Broken Top made an appearance on the horizon.

Several of us made it all the way up Quinn Creek to the falls. When we tried this two years ago, we were stopped short by lower water.

In spite of the morning fog, we could see the mountain and our campsite - just had to use a kayak to get the right angle.

Fun, relaxing, and we each found something we wanted. I found a couple very old caches and BJ found a quilt shop.

Now it's time to head for home - starting out by heading northeast.